i 


UC-NRLF 


•;-•- 


LIBRARY 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

t  i  &  % 
Class 


THE   AMERICAN  AS    HE   IS 


BY   THE   SAME   AUTHOR 

THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION  —  The  Macmillan  Co., 
1898,  xii  +  230pp.,  $1. 

TRUE  AND  FALSE  DEMOCRACY  —  The  Macmillan  Co., 
1907,  xii 4-111  pp.,  $1. 

PHILOSOPHY  —  Columbia    University    Press,     1908, 
27  pp.,  paper,  25^. 


THE  AMERICAN  AS  HE  IS 


BY 

NICHOLAS  MURRAY  BUTLER 

PRESIDENT  OF  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1908 

All  rights  reserved 


GENERAL 

COPYRIGHT,  1908, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


fit    '"O 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  November,  1908. 


J.  S.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


TO   THE   UNIVERSITY  OF   COPENHAGEN 

WHOSE    BENEFICENT    ACTIVITY   BEGAN 
BEFORE  AMERICA  WAS  DISCOVERED 


THE  chapters  of  this  book  were  delivered  as  Preface 
lectures  before  the  University  of  Copenhagen  in 
September,  1908,  in  response  to  the  invitation  of 
the  Rector  and  Faculty  of  that  University. 

It  is  not  easy  to  speak  dispassionately  of  the 
institutions  and  the  civilization  of  one's  own 
country.  The  most  ardent  patriot  sees  many 
things  that  he  would  improve ;  the  most  detached 
critic  feels  many  things  that  are  surpassingly 
good.  Only  the  historian  of  the  future  can  hold 
the  balance  even  between  the  strong  and  the  weak 
aspects  of  a  nation's  life.  My  task  was  less  am 
bitious  and  less  difficult.  It  was  to  respond  as 
best  I  could  to  the  invitation  of  a  sister  uni 
versity,  rich  in  years  and  in  service  to  scholar 
ship  and  to  science,  to  set  out  some  of  the  aspects 
of  American  life  and  to  draw,  in  large  lines,  a 
picture  of  that  part  of  present-day  civilization 
which  the  world  knows  as  American, 
[vii] 


Preface  For  a  genuine  understanding  of  the  government 

and  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  temper  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  one  must  know 
thoroughly  and  well  the  writings  and  speeches  of 
three  Americans,  —  Alexander— Hamilton,  /Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  and  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.^ 

COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY, 
October  20,  1908. 


E  viii  [J 


THE  AMERICAN  AS  A  POLITICAL  TYPE 


The  truth  is  that  the  general  genius  of  a  govern 
ment  is  all  that  can  be  substantially  relied  upon  for 
permanent  effects.  Particular  provisions,  though  not 
altogether  useless,  have  far  less  virtue  and  efficiency 
than  are  commonly  ascribed  to  them;  and  the  want 
of  them  will  never  be,  with  men  of  sound  discernment, 
a  decisive  objection  to  any  plan  which  exhibits  the 
leading  characters  of  a  good  government.  —  ALEXAN 
DER  HAMILTON. 


UN; 


THE   AMERICAN  AS  A  POLITICAL 
TYPE 

THE  most  impressive  fact  in  American  life  is   The 
the  substantial  unity  of  view  in  regard  to  the  American 
fundamental    questions    of    government    and    of  as  a 

conduct  among  a  population  so  large,  distributed 

lype 
over  an  area  so  wide,  recruited  from  sources  so 

many  and  so  diverse,  living  under  conditions  so 
widely  different.  There  is  an  American  type 
of  mind,  complex  not  simple,  discernible  under 
neath  the  many  individual  differences  that  vary 
ing  conditions  of  life,  education,  occupation,  and 
climate  have  brought  about.  This  unity  amid 
so  much  diversity  is  itself  a  very  impressive  fact, 
and  the  causes  that  produced  it  are  important 
to  know. 

The  first  and  cnief  cause  is  the  extraordinary  Persistence 
persistence   of  the  Anglo-Saxon   impulse,  which   Anglo-Saxon 
brought  the  United  States  of  America  into  exist-  imPulse 
[3] 


The 

American 
as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


ence.  For  the  origin  of  that  impulse  one  must 
go  back  to  the  Teutonic  qualities  and  character 
istics  of  the  people  so  admirably  described  by 
Tacitus  in  his  Germania  as  propriam  et  sinceram 
et  tantum  sui  similem  gentem.  It  was  in  northern 
Europe,  between  the  Vistula  and  the  Rhine,  two 
thousand  years  ago,  that  the  impulse  which  finally 
made  a  great  nation  on  the  North  American  con 
tinent  took  its  origin.  It  grew  in  strength  as  it 
was  developed  by  conflict  and  by  self-expression 
in  institutions,  local  and  national.  In  England 
it  drew  to  itself  elements  from  the  Dane,  the  Nor 
man,  and  the  Frank,  and  welded  them  all  into  one. 
Throughout  English  history  it  struggled  on,  some 
times  checked,  but  never  conquered,  until  it 
established  parliamentary  government,  put 'limi 
tations  upon  the  once  absolute  monarchy,  worked 
out  a  massive  body  of  common  law  to  regulate  the 
dealings  of  man  with  man,  and  laid  the  founda 
tions  of  an  economic  and  industrial  system  in 
which  every  opportunity  was  accorded  to  indi 
vidual  initiative  and  in  which  individual  excel 
lence  was  protected  in  the  possession  of  its  gains. 
It  distinguished  liberty  *from  license,  and  it  grew 
[4] 


to  have  a  profound  regard  for  law  and  order  and    The 

to  prefer  the  rule  of  justice  to  that  of  might.  American 

In  America  it  laid  the  foundations  of  a  democ-  as  a 
racy  which  conformed  to  the  fine  definition  of 
^steur.  "Democracy,"  said  he,  "is  that  order 
in  the  state  which  permits  each  individual  to 
)iit  forth  his  utmost  effort."  It  is  this  original 
Anglo-Saxon  impulse  which  finds  expression  in 
the  early  colonial  life  of  America,  and  which' 
gives  form  alike  to  the  Mayflower  compact  of 
1620,  to  the  Declaration  of  Rights  of  1765,  to 
the  Declaration  of  the  Causes  and  Necessity  of 
Taking  up  Arms  of  1775,  to  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  of  1776,  to  the  Ordinance  for  the 
Government  of  the  Northwest  Territory  of  1787, 
and  finally  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  itself.  This  impulse  persists  to  this  day 
and  is  the  underlying  and  controlling  fact  in 
American  life.  It  has  furnished  the  warp  through 
which  the  shuttle  of  time  and  of  changing  events 
has  carried  the  threads  which  are  American 
history. 

Despite  the  large  Irish,  German,  Slavic,  Italian, 
Scandinavian,  and  Jewish  additions  to  the  original 
[5] 


The 

American 
as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


American  population,  the  Anglo-Saxon  impulse 
holds  its  own.  In  America  it  is  repeating  on  a 
larger  scale  the  history  of  England,  and  it  is 
drawing  to  itself  support  and  strength  from  the 
other  and  varied  nationalities  that  are  there 
joined  to  it.  The  English  language  overrules 
the  immigrant's  native  tongue,  if  not  in  the  first 
generation,  certainly  in  the  second,  and  the 
English  common  law,  with  its  statutory  amend 
ments  and  additions,  displaces  the  immigrant's 
customs  of  life  and  trade  with  a  rapidity  that  is 
truly  astonishing. 

£  It  would  be  hard  to  find  under  any  single  flag, 
individuals  more  widely  different  than  the  urban 
and  urbane  dweller  on  the  Atlantic  or  Pacific 
seaboard,  the  easy-going  Southern  planter,  the 
rude  and  rugged  mountaineer  of  East  Tennessee, 
and  the  restless  and  often  turbulent  plainsman; 
but  common  to  them  all  is  the  English  tongue 
and  the  sejns^joTjustice,  fair  play,  and  personal 
liberty^  which  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  English 
common  law.  This  is  the  first  and  chief  cause 
of  the  unity  which  underlies  the  divergent 
American  types. 

[6] 


In  addition  to  the  persistence  of  this  Anglo-    The 
Saxon    impulse,    certain    binding    and    unifying  American 
forces  have  been  at  work  in  the  United  States  as  a  Po~ 

for  more  than  a  century.     One  of  the  most  im- 

Type 
portant    of    these    is    the    continuing    interstate     — 

migration,  which  still  goes  on  and  which  has  built 
up  the  newer  States  and  Territories  on  the  lines  Effect  of 
of  the  older  ones.  States  like  New  York,  Ohio,  migrati0n 
Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  North  Carolina,  and 
Tennessee  have  sent  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
the  most  ambitious  of  their  youth  to  build  up, 
first  the  Middle  West,  then  the  plains,  and  then 
the  Pacific  slope;  California,  Texas,  Kansas, 
and  Oklahoma  are  notable  examples  of  great 
Commonwealths  built  up  in  this  way.  For  the 
most  part  this  interstate  migration  has  taken  place 
along  east  and  west  lines.  Massachusetts  and 
Vermont  sent  their  pioneering  elements  to  western 
New  York  and  northern  Ohio,  and  these  in  turn 
sent  theirs  to  Illinois  and  Iowa,  and  then  these 
sent  theirs  still  farther  west,  for  the  most  part 
along  the  same  parallels  of  latitude.  It  is  no 
unusual  thing  in  America  to  find  a  family  of  which 
the  grandparents  live  in  New  England  or  New 
[7] 


The 

American 
as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


Influence 
of  voluntary 
organizations 


York,  the  parents  in  the  Middle  West,  and  some 
or  all  of  the  children  in  the  Rocky  Mountain 
States  or  in  Oklahoma  or  Texas. 

By  the  census  of  1900  it  was  shown  that  twenty- 
one  per  cent  of  the  total  native-born  element  of 
the  population  had  emigrated  from  the  State 
or  Territory  in  which  they  were  born,  and  were 
found  living  in  other  States  and  Territories.  It 
may  be  doubted  whether  any  similar  phenomenon 
is  to  be  found  in  any  other  country.  In  a  nation 
spread  over  so  large  an  area  as  the  United  States 
it  is  plain  that  the  influence  of  this  large  inter 
state  migration  as  a  unifying  force  is  very  great. 

Still  another  influence  which  binds  together  the 
widely  separated  parts  of  the  nation  and  assists 
the  development  of  a  common  consciousness 
among  the  American -people,  is  that  exerted  by  the 
large  number  of  important  voluntary  organiza 
tions  of  various  kinds  that  are  national  in  scope 
and  aim.  The  periodical  meetings  of  these 
various  voluntary  organizations  bring  together 
representative  men  from  all  parts  of  the  country, 
and  through  their  exchange  of  ideas  and  personal 
friendships  they  act  upon  public  opinion  in  many 
[83 


ways,   some   of   them   hardly   noticeable   at   the    The 
time,  but  all  of  which   assist   in  building  up  a  American 

common  national  consciousness  and  a  common   as  a       ~ 

,     .  .  m,  .        litical 

national     interest.     These     voluntary     orgamza- 

Type 
tions  are  very  numerous.     The  more  important 

are  those  which  are  educational,  religious,  phil 
anthropic,  or  scientific  in  character,  but  the 
influence  of  those  whose  purpose  is  merely  social 
or  fraternal  is  also  too  significant  to  be  over 
looked. 

Skill  in  organization  and  aptitude  for  it  are  very 
common  among  Americans.  Their  parliamentary 
procedure  is  well  developed  and  generally  under 
stood  by  the  people.  Their  voluntary  organiza 
tions  are  conducted  in  accordance  with  the  estab 
lished  principles  of  parliamentary  law,  and 
these  organizations  provide  an  excellent  training 
ground  for  many  of  those  who  afterwards  rise  to 
important  places  in  public  life. 

The  Americans  are  great  newspaper  readers.   The  news- 
Nowhere  else  are  so  many  newspapers  published   ] 
as  in  the  United  States.     Of  the  sixty  thousand 
newspapers  now  published  in  the  world,  nearly 
twenty   thousand    are    published    in   the   United 
[9] 


The 

American 
as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


States.  More  than  sixteen  thousand  of  these 
are  published  once  each  week,  and  it  is  these 
weekly  newspapers  that  penetrate  into  the  re 
motest  hamlets,  carrying  a  digest  of  the  news  of 
the  world  furnished  by  the  well-organized  press 
associations  and  newspaper  syndicates.  These 
weekly  newspapers  do  not  as  a  rule  give  so  much 
space  to  news  of  a  purely  sensational  nature  or 
to  the  chronicle  of  vice  and  crime  as  do  the  daily 
newspapers  of  the  large  cities,  whose  numerous 
editions  are  eagerly  read  by  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  persons.  With  a  few  noteworthy  exceptions, 
the  best  and  most  creditable  American  newspapers 
are  to  be  found  in  cities  of  from  fifty  thousand 
to  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  inhabitants. 
Some  of  the  larger  cities  are  sadly  lacking  in 
daily  newspapers  that  are  in  all  respects  worthy. 
As  a  rule,  the  American  newspapers  give  a  rela 
tively  large  amount  of  space  to  foreign  news, 
with  the  result  that  as  a  whole  the  American 
people  are  much  better  informed  about  foreign 
countries  than  the  people  of  foreign  countries 
are  about  them. 

The  newspapers  assist  powerfully  in  building 
[10] 


a  common  national  consciousness,  because  they    The 
provide  substantially  the  same  food  for  reflection  American 
to  all  the  people.     Their  editorial  discussions  of  as  a  Po~ 

i  L  |  ..  .  | 

litical 
current  events  are,  in  very  many  cases,  written 

lype 
by  men  of  education  and  fine  feeling,  and  abound 

in  evidences  of  information  and  good  judgment. 
Unfortunately,  there  are  to  be  found  in  some  of 
the  large  cities  daily  newspapers  of  a  quite  dif 
ferent  type.  Their  purpose  is  to  exploit  the 
people,  either  for  gain  or  for  the  political  advance 
ment  of  their  owners  or  managers.  In  order  to 
exploit  the  people  these  newspapers  must  gain 
their  ear.  They  do  this,  first,  by  appealing  to 
the  lower  and  baser  feelings  and  instincts  of  their 
readers,  by  furnishing  news  or  alleged  news 
which  either  satisfies  a  prurient  and  unhealthy 
curiosity  or  excites  envy,  hatred,  and  malice  tow 
ard  the  conspicuous  or  the  well-to-do;  second, 
by  claiming  to  perform  —  and  occasionally  by  act 
ually  performing  —  a  public  service  in  connection 
with  a  law  or  administrative  measure  which  has 
been  proposed  in  the  public  interest,  but  which 
meets  with  the  opposition  of  some  privileged 
person  or  group.  Having  by  these  or  similar 
[11] 


The  methods  built  up  a  large  constituency,  the  con- 

American  ductors  of  these  newspapers  attempt  to  use  their 
readers  to  serve  their  own  or  the  newspaper's 
interest.  Sometimes  they  are  successful,  but  only 


Type 


The  political 
parties 


temporarily  so.  Such  deception  and  such  selfish 
misuse  of  power  cannot  continue  to  be  successful 
indefinitely. 

The  critic  of  the  American  newspaper  should 
not  judge  it  by  its  worst  examples.  They  are 
noisy,  but  not  numerous.  At  its  best,  or  even 
in  its  average,  state,  the  American  newspaper  is 
conducted  with  sobriety  and  with  a  due  sense  of 
responsibility  as  an  institution  powerful  for  good 
or  evil  in  a  democratic  community.  It,  too,  is 
a  unifying  force  of  the  highest  importance  in  the 
nation. 

The  two  great  political  parties,  the  Republican 
and  the  Democratic,  operate  as  a  unifying  force 
of  the  first  magnitude.  Nowhere  else,  save 
perhaps  in  Great  Britain,  is  attachment  to  party 
name  and  party  symbol  so  strong  as  in  the  United 
States.  A  party  may  wholly  change  its  prin 
ciples  and  its  point  of  view,  as,  for  example,  the 
Democratic  party  has  done  since  the  candidacies 
[12] 


of  Tilden   in    1876   and   of   Cleveland   in    1884,    The 
1888,  and  1892,—  and  yet  the  great  mass  of  Demo-  American 
crats  continue  to  follow,  year  after  year,  the  old  c 
name  and  the  old  symbol  despite  the  changed 
leadership  and  the  altered  programme.     This  fact 
indicates  that  in  the  United  States  party  member 
ship  and  party  loyalty  are  often  more  a  matter 
of   sentiment   and   association   than   of   political 
conviction;    and  such  indeed  is  the  case.     From 
habit   and  difference  of  temperament  two  men 
quite  in  accord  on  most  political  questions  will 
frequently    vote    for    opposing    candidates    and 
policies. 

Perhaps  one  in  ten  of  the  voting  population  — 
in  some  communities  as  many  as  one  in  five  — 
hold  themselves  wholly  aloof  from  party  organ 
ization  and  vote  each  year  as  their  judgment  at 
the  moment  dictates.  They  constitute  the  so- 
called  independent  vote,  and  as  the  power  to 
determine  the  result  of  a  given  election  is  often 
in  their  hands,  their  support  is  more  eagerly  and 
more  anxiously  sought  by  party  managers  than 
these  managers  are  always  willing  to  admit. 

Nevertheless,  the  party  organizations  are  very 
[13] 


The 

American 
as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


powerful,  and  of  late  years  they  have  been  gen 
erally  recognized  by  law  in  the  enactments  of 
the  various  States  in  regard  to  the  supervision 
and  control  of  elections  and  the  steps  preliminary 
thereto.  Members  of  a  given  party  organiza 
tion  are  drawn  closely  together  by  interest  and 
sympathy,  no  matter  how  far  apart  their  homes 
may  be.  A  prominent  Democrat  of  Texas  is 
a  welcome  guest  of  his  fellow-partisans  in  New 
York  or  Massachusetts,  and  a  distinguished 
Republican  from  Maine  is  greeted  as  an  old  and 
valued  friend  by  the  Republicans  of  Illinois  or 
California. 

The  great  national  conventions  of  the  two 
parties,  which  meet  once  in  four  years  to  nomi 
nate  candidates  for  President  and  Vice-President 
and  to  adopt  a  declaration  of  principles  —  or 
platform,  as  it  is  called,  —  are  the  most  charac 
teristic  gatherings  known  to  American  politics. 
They  are  wholly  unknown  to  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws,  and  their  existence  and  importance 
illustrate  very  well  the  capacity  of  the  American 
to  adapt  himself  and  his  institutions  to  changed 
circumstances  and  conditions.  By  the  terms  of 
[14] 


the  Constitution,  the  President  and  Vice-Presi-    The 
dent  were  to  be  chosen,  not  by  the  voting  masses  American 
at  all,  but  by  electors  chosen  by  the  voters  of  the   as  a  ^°~ 

several  States.     It  was  the  theory  of  the  Consti-    , 

Type 
tution  that  these  electors  would  deliberate  and 

select  as  President  and  Vice-President  the  per 
sons  in  their  judgment  best  fitted  for  these  high  ' 
offices.  But  after  Andrew  Jackson's  time  (1828- 
1836),  when  the  presidency  first  took  on  the  com 
manding  position  that  it  has  since  occupied  in 
American  politics,  the  voting  masses,  in  order  to 
control  the  selection  of  the  party  candidates, 
developed  the  system  of  national  nominating 
conventions,  consisting  of  delegates  chosen  by 
the  voters  belonging  to  a  given  party  in  the 
several  States.  The  choice  of  the  party's  nomi-  ' 
nating  convention  then  became  morally  obliga 
tory  upon  the  electors  chosen  by  that  party's 
voters.  In  this  way,  the  electors  —  the  Electoral 
College,  as  they  are  collectively  known  —  lost 
their  constitutional  functions  entirely,  and  they 
now  register,  in  a  purely  perfunctory  manner, 
the  will  of  the  party  to  which  they  belong.  It  is 
probable  that  before  many  years  precisely  the 
[15] 


The 

American 
as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


same  process  will  be  gone  through  with  as  to  the 
election  of  United  States  senators.  Senators  are 
now  chosen  by  the  several  State  legislatures,  as 
the  Constitution  provides;  but  State  conventions 
of  delegates  chosen  by  the  voting  masses  are 
already  assuming  the  right  to  dictate  to  the 
legislature  a  party  candidate  for  senator,  and 
before  long  the  legislatures,  or  most  of  them, 
when  they  elect  senators,  will  doubtless  act  quite 
as  perfunctorily  as  the  Electoral  College  does 
now. 

It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  both  as  to  the  elec 
tion  of  President  and  Vice-President  and  as  to 
the  election  of  senators,  the  people,  operating 
through  the  parties  and  through  the  party  organ 
izations,  have  altered  and  are  altering  the  pro 
visions  of  the  Constitution,  without  formal 
amendment,  in  a  way  that  makes  the  choice  of 
these  high  officers  respond  as  directly  as  possible 
to  the  people's  will. 

Moreover,  the  parties  and  the  party  organiza- 

x    i 

tions  have  brought  about  a  substantial  uniform 
ity  of  the  forms  of  political  action  in  all  parts  of 
the  country.     Even  a  specific  legislative  proposal,  / 
[16] 


the  principle  of  which  is  supported  by  a  political    The 
party  for  the  time  dominant,  is  likely  to  appear  American 
in  much  the  same  form  and  language  upon  the   c 

statute  books  of  several  States.     Since  the  party    . 

Type 
organizations   are   constantly  at  work,   not   only 

at  times  of  election,  but  at  all  times,  it  is  obvious 
that  their  part  in  developing  a  common  national 
consciousness  is  a  highly  important  one. 

The  government  of  the  United  States  as  estab-  The  govern- 
lished  by  the  Constitution,  and  the  progressive  unifying 
development  of  the  nation's  political  conscious-  force 
ness  that  has  taken  place  under  it,  have  exerted 
a  steady  pressure,  for  more  than  a  hundred  years, 
toward  the  making  and  the  strengthening  of  a 
common  national  type  and  a  common  national 
point  of  view.  Every  appropriation  of  money  by 
the  Congress  for  a  public  building  in  a  city  or 
town,  for  the  improvement  of  a  river  or  harbor 
for  purposes  of  navigation,  for  the  extension  of 
the  postal  service  to  rural  districts,  for  the  irriga 
tion  of  arid  lands  in  the  West  and  Southwest, 
or  for  the  beneficent  work  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture,  leads  the  part  immediately  affected 
or  benefited  to  lean  more  heavily  upon  the  whole. 
[17] 


The 

American 
as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


Circumstances  have  built  in  the  United  States  a 
nation  far  more  solid,  far  more  unified,  and  far 
more  centralized  than  was  thought  to  be  possible 
when  the  Constitution  was  framed. 

The  circumstances  which  have  worked  together 
to  this  end  have  been  in  no  small  part  political, 
but  they  have  also  been  in  large  part  economic. 
As  Professor  Burgess  has  so  convincingly  shown,1 
the  individual  liberty  of  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States  is  national  in  its  origin,  content,  and  sanc 
tion.  One  may  think  himself  a  Rhode  Islander, 
\  a  Virginian,  or  a  Calif ornian  first,  and  an  Ameri 
can  afterwards,  but  if  he  analyzes  carefully  the 
question  of  his  civil  liberty,  its  guarantees,  and  its 
defender,  he  will  soon  find  that  he  is  primarily 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States  and  that  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  is  his  ultimate  pro 
tector.  It  is  this  political  fact  which  gives  to  the 
Constitution  such  supreme  importance.  If,  like 
the  French  constitution,  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  merely  created  a  government  and 
prescribed  the  functions  of  its  several  parts,  it 

1  Burgess,   Political    Science   and   Constitutional    Law 
(1890),  1:184  et  seq. 


would  be  a  far  less  vital  document  than  it  really    The 

is.     But   in   addition  to   creating   a  government  American 

and  prescribing  the  functions  of  its  several  parts,   c 

the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  marks  off   m 

Type 

the  field  of  civil  liberty  and  guarantees  the  indi 
vidual  citizen  against  an  invasion  of  his  rights 
not  only  by  another  individual,  but  by  the  gov 
ernment  itself.  This  is  the  one  particular  char 
acteristic  in  which  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  is  superior  to  any  other.  It  is  also  the 
particular  characteristic  which  makes  it  difficult 
for  a  European  student  or  critic  to  understand. 
Walter  Bagehot,  the  English  publicist,  complained 
that  he  could  not  find  whereabouts  in  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  the  sovereignty 
was  placed.  He  could  not  find  sovereignty  in 
the  American  government  simply  because  it  is 
not  there.  The  President  is  not  sovereign,  the 
Congress  is  not  sovereign,  the  judiciary  is  not 
sovereign,  all  three  together  are  not  sovereign; 
their  powers  and  duties  are  all  marked  out  for 

•  4x 

them  by  the  Constitution.     The  forty-sg  States 

which  now  compose  the  United  States  are  none 

of  them  sovereign;    they  are  all  subject  to  the 

[19] 


The 

American 
as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  to  the  laws 
and  treaties  enacted  and  adopted  in  accordance 
therewith.  The  sovereignty  is  not  to  be  found 
in  the  Constitution  or  under  it,  but  behind  it. 
It  is  vested  in  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
who  adopted  the  Constitution,  acting  through 
conventions  of  the  people  in  the  several  States, 
and  who  may,  if  they  choose,  alter  and  amend 
it  in  ways  which  they  have  provided  in  the  Con 
stitution  itself. 

In  other  words,  the  government  of  the  United 
States  represents  and  controls  but  a  part  of  the 
people's  activities.  Into  the  wide  domain  of 
the  individual's  civil  liberty  it  may  not  enter,  and 
that  domain  is  a  most  important  element  of  the 
life  of  the  United  States  to-day.  This  explains 
why  so  much  of  the  highest  and  best  trained  and 
most  representative  talent  and  ability  of  America 
are  found  outside  £|-  the  government.  The 
leaders  of  the  country's  education,  bar,  journalism, 
finance,  commerce,  and  industry,  not  the  govern 
ment  officials  of  the  moment,  are  the  most  im 
portant  and  the  most  influential  factors  in  Ameri 
can  life.  Only  occasionally,  as  in  the  case  of 
[20] 


Secretary  Root  or  the  late  Governor  Russell  of    The 
Massachusetts,  or  a  very  few  leading  members   American 
of  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Representatives,   as  a  Po~ 

do  men  of  the  highest  intellectual  and  moral  type    m 

lype 
enter  the  government  service  and  remain  in  it. 

There  are  many  reasons  for  this  regrettable  fact, 
but  it  is  mentioned  now  only  to  emphasize  the 
point  that  in  America  the  words  "  governmental " 
and  "public"  are  by  no  means  interchangeable. 
In  America  many  undertakings,  many  policies, 
many  men,  are  in  every  true  sense  of  the  word 
public,  in  that  they  represent  the  public  and  rest 
upon  its  will,  without  having  any  direct  relation 
to  the  government  at  all. 

Great,  therefore,  as  is  the  unifying  and  uniting 
influence  of  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
its  policies  and  its  activities,  the  unifying  and 
uniting  forces  and  influences  outside  of  the  gov 
ernment  are  more  numerous  and  more  powerful 
still^  They  are  educational,  social,  and  economic, 
and  they  are  ceaselessly  and  tirelessly  at  work. 

The   provision   of  the   Constitution  that  gave   Economic 
, !      r,  forces  and  the 

to  the  Congress  the  power     to  regulate  commerce   national  life 

with    foreign    nations    and    among    the    several 
[21] 


The 

American 
as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


States,  and  with  the  Indian  tribes,"  has  made  it 
i  possible  for  the  whole  vast  economic  and  indus 
trial  development  of  the  nineteenth  century  to 
work  directly  toward  uniting  and  unifying  the 
American  people.  First  water-power,  then  steam, 
then  electricity;  first  roads,  then  canals,  then 
railways;  first  individual  manufacturers  and 
traders,  then  companies,  then  huge  corporations, 
have  together  brought  about  an  industrial  develop 
ment  and  prosperity  such  as  the  world  has  never 
before  seen.  The  statistics  of  agricultural  pro 
duction,  of  manufactures,  and  of  transportation 
now  reveal  figures  that  are  literally  stupendous. 
The  interstate  commerce  has  risen  to  huge  pro- 
'  portions.  The  tonnage  passing  the  Sault  Ste. 
Marie,  the  Detroit  River,  or  the  harbor  of  Buffalo, 
equals  or  exceeds  that  of  ports  like  London, 
Liverpool,  or  Hamburg.  The  application  of 
science  to  agriculture  and  mining  steadily  increases 
the  return  from  these  natural  resources  of  the 
nation.  Close  study  of  the  mechanical  and 
financial  problems  connected  with  transportation 
steadily  diminishes  the  cost  and  increases  the 
safety  of  carrying  goods  from  one  part  of  the 
[22] 


country  to  another.     Wages  have  risen  both  ab-    The 
solutely    and    relatively.     The    operation    of   the   American 

protective  tariff,   despite  the  just   criticism  that   c 

%    .       _  liiical 

may   be   directed   against   some   of   its   features, 

has  been  on  the  whole  very  favorable  to  the  up 
building  and  the  diversification  of  industry,  to 
the  raising  of  wages  and  increasing  the  steadiness 
of  employment,  and  to  securing  satisfactory 
returns  for  capital  embarked  in  new  enterprises. 
While  the  tariff  will  certainly  undergo  needed 
revision  in  the  near  future,  no  considerable  body 
of  opinion  in  either  political  party  proposes  seri 
ously  to  overthrow  it,  or  to  reverse  a  political 
and  economic  policy  that  has  now  lasted  for 
nearly  half  a  century. 

The  American  people  are  essentially  conserva-  Conservatism 

of  the  Ameri- 
tive.     The  persistence  of  the   Constitution  sub-  can  people 

stantially  unchanged  is  proof  of  the  nation's  ^r 
conservatism.  The  Constitution  persists  because 
its  founders,  with  almost  superhuman  wisdom, 
made  it  really  a  Constitution  —  a  document  of 
underlying  principles  freed  from  attempts  at  their 
detailed  application  —  and  not  a  code  cf  laws ; 
and  because  they  made  it  conform  to  the  settled 
[23] 


The 

American 
as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


The  rule 
of  the  Con-( 
stitution 


habits  of  political  thinking  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
colonists,  who  were  the  original  builders  of  the 
nation.  The  moods  and  passions  of  a  people, 
whether  European  or  American,  must  never  be 
permitted  to  overthrow  the  institutions  which 
represent  the  historical  development  and  ex 
pression  of  their  deepest  convictions.  So  the 
Constitution,  interpreted  by  the  judiciary,  stands 
as  sentinel  over  the  hard-won  civil  liberty  of  the 
American  branch  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  people 
and  those  others  who  have  joined  them,  and 
prevents  a  passing  wave  of  opinion,  which  com 
mands  a  temporary  majority,  from  subverting 
or  damaging  the  foundations  of  the  whole  polit 
ical  structure. 

Sometimes  the  superficial  observer  or  the  im 
patient  advocate  of  a  new  proposal  complains 
that  the  Constitution  prevents  genuinely  popular 
government  because  of  the  fact  that  the  limita 
tions  it  imposes  prevent  his  having  his  way. 
Such  an  one  does  not  understand  what  the  Con 
stitution  is  or  what  popular  government  really 
means  in  the  case  of  a  great  civilized  people  with 
civil  liberty  to  protect  and  a  part  to  play  in  the 
[24] 


progress    of   the    world's    life.     For   America    at    The 
least  it  is  the  Constitution  that  makes   genuinely  American 
popular  government  possible,   and  that  protects 

the  people  from  the  rule  of  the  changing,  the  fickle, 

j.  ype 

and  the  cruel  mob. 

It  is  an  error  to  liken  the  position  of  the  Presi-  The  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  to  that  of  a  sovereign 
in  a  constitutional  monarchy.  In  a  constitu 
tional  monarchy,  the  king  holds  an  office;  he  is 
a  sovereign  only  in  name.  The  king  is  generally, 
in  form  at  least,  a  part  of  the  executive  branch 
of  the  government,  the  other  part  being  exercised 
by  the  prime  minister  or  president  of  the  council. 
This  part  of  the  executive  power  is  closely  related 
to,  and  often  made  by  the  constitution  of  the 
country  dependent  upon,  the  legislature.  In 
the  United  States,  conditions  are  quite  different. 
The  President  is  an  organ  of  government,  and 
he  directly  represents  the  sovereign  people  who 
choose  him.  He  is  entirely  independent  of  the 
legislature,  save  through  the  process  of  impeach 
ment.  His  powers  and  duties  are  those  which 
the  Constitution  prescribes.  He  is  not  a  king  or 
the  successor  of  kings.  He  is  the  nation's  chief 
[25] 


as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


I 


The  executive,  separated  by  the  terms  of  the   Consti- 

American  tution  from  the  nation's  legislature,  the  Congress, 
as  well  as  from  the  nation's  judiciary,  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  and  the  inferior  federal 
tribunals. 

Therefore,  a  controversy  between  the  President 
and  the  Congress  is  not  parallel  to  a  controversy 
between  an  absolute  monarch  and  the  legislature 
of  his  country,  in  which  the  representatives  of 
the  people  are  all  on  one  side.  It  is  a  controversy 
between  two  of  the  people's  representatives. 
The  history  of  American  politics  shows  clearly 
how  thoroughly  the  people  regard  the  President 
as  their  direct  representative.  At  first  this  was 
not  the  case.  More  interest  was  taken  in  the 
election  of  Congressmen  than  in  the  election  of  a 
President.  The  controlling  groups  in  the  Con 
gress  really  chose  the  early  Presidents.  At  the 
election  of  1820,  when  the  slavery  debates  were 
in  their  early  stages  and  when  the  whole  country 
was  enormously  interested  in  them,  only  seven 
teen  votes  for  President  were  cast  in  the  city  of 
Richmond,  Virginia,  which  at  that  time  had  a 

***-       r 

population  of  more  than  twelve  thousand.     After 
[26] 


Andrew    Jackson's    time    (1828-1836),   however,    The 
there  came  a  change,  and  for  many  years  past   American 
the  popular  interest  has  centred  in   the   election   as  a     °~ 

I  •,  •         I 

of  the   President.     Without  the   President's  co- 

Type 
operation  and  without  the  President's  initiative 

no  party  can  hope  to  carry  its  policies  into  effect, 
even  if  it  has  a  large  majority  in  the  Congress. 
The  power  of  the  presidential  office  has  steadily 
increased,  not  in  opposition  to  the  will  of  the 
people,  but  because  of  their  will  and  their  confi 
dence  in  the  presidents  of  their  choosing. 

A  word  must  be  added  in  explanation  of  the   The  judiciary 
......  .  .  ..    .        as  an  organ  of 

independent  and  highly  important  position  of  the   government 

judiciary  under  tie  Constitution.  "The  judicial 
department,"  said  John  Marshall  in  the  Vir 
ginia  Convention  of  1829,  "comes  home  in  its 
effect  to  every  man's  fireside :  it  passes  on  his 
property,  his  reputation,  his  life^  his  all.  Is  it 
not  to  the  last  degree  important  that  he  (the 
judge)  should  be  rendered  perfectly  and  com 
pletely  independent,  with  nothing  to  control  him 
but  God  and  his  conscience  ?  "  1 

1  Proceedings  and  Debates  of  the  Virginia  State  Conven 
tion  of  1829-30 ,  p.  616. 

[27] 


The 

American 
as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


In  England,  and  generally  elsewhere,  the  judi 
cial  power  is  subordinate  to  the  legislative,  and 
as  Chief  Justice  Taney  remarked,  the  English 
courts  must  enforce  an  'act  of  Parliament  even 
if  they  believe  that  act  to  conflict  with  Magna 
Charta  or  the  Petition  of  Rights.  In  the  United 
States  this  is  not  the  case.  The  Congress  has 
only  those  powers  that  are  delegated  to  it  in  the 
Constitution.  The  Federal  courts,  on  the  other 
hand,  possess  the  full  judicial  power  of  the  nation, 
unlimited  and  untrammelled,  which  power  the 
Congress  cannot  invade  or  diminish.  The  Fed 
eral  courts,  therefore,  have  the  right  to  determine 
whether  or  not  the  Congress  has  exceeded  its 
powers  in  any  given  case.  If  they  find  that  ifc 
has  done  so,  the  act  in  question  is  at  once  void 
and  of  no  effect,  because  contrary  to  the  Con 
stitution.  So  the  courts,  too,  as  well  as  the 
President  and  the  Congress,  represent  the  people 
of  the  United  States.  They  are  not  merely  a 
part  of  the  nation's  administrative  machinery, 
but,  like  the  President  and  the  Congress,  they  are 
an  independent  organ  of  government. 

Most  completely  of  all  the  organs  of  govern- 
[28] 


ment  the  courts  represent  the  settled  habits  of    The 
thinking  of  the  American  people.     A  President  American 
may  be,  and  at  times  is,  powerfully  influenced   l 

by  the  passions  and  clamor  of  the  moment.     The    , 

Type 
Federal    courts    are    much    less    likely  to   be    so 

influenced.  The  Congress  may  be  stampeded  by 
a  popular  outcry  into  passing  some  crude  or 
unjust  act.  The  Federal  courts  are  there,  in 
all  their  majesty,  to  decide  whether  the  popular 
outcry  has  asked  for  and  obtained  something 
which  runs  counter  to  the  constitutional  guaran 
tees  of  civil  liberty  and  to  the  division  of  powers 
between  nation  and  States.  If  so,  the  popu 
lar  clamor  cannot  have  what  it  thinks  it 
wants.  To  override  the  Constitution  would  be 
revolution;  orderly  and  rational  change  in  its 
provisions  can  only  take  place  by  revision  or 
amendment. 

Here   we   come   upon    the   one   most   marked   A  government 
and  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  American  not  mgn 
form  of  government.     Every  immediate  demand 
for  political  action  is  tested  as  to  its  validity  by 
the   standard   of   the   fundamental   principles   of 
organized   government   to   which   the   American 
[29] 


The 

American 
as  a  Po 
litical 
Type 


people  give  allegiance,  and  which  their  Constitu 
tion  embodies.  The  test  is  made  not  by  the 
President,  however  wise  or  however  popular,  or 
by  the  Congress,  however  cautious  and  however 
deliberate,  but  by  the  courts.  It  is  made  in 
accordance  with  well-settled  and  familiar  prin 
ciples  of  law  and  equity.  It  is  this  rule  of  law, 
of  principles,  not  of  men,  which  dominates  all 
American  political  action.  Every  departure  from 
it,  every  outburst  against  it,  every  violation  of  it, 
is  not  American;  it  is  anti-American,  abnormal 
and  pathologic. 

By  considering  these  facts  and  the  operation  of 
the  forces  named,  it  can,  perhaps,  be  understood 
how  it  is  that,  despite  differences  of  climate  as 
marked  as  those  between  Denmark  and  Greece, 
despite  separation  by  distance  greater  than  that 
between  England  and  Siberia,  despite  variety 
of  race  origin  greater  than  that  of  all  Europe, 
the  ninety  millions  of  American  people  are  at 
bottom  a  single  and  recognizable  political  type. 
On  to  one  vigorous  original  tree  many  new  and 
strange  branches  have  been  grafted,  but  the  parent 
stem  sustains  and  nourishes  them  all.  Forces 
[30] 


of  every  kind,  political,  economic,  social,  and  edu-    The 
cational,  have  for  more  than  a  century  enriched   American 

the  soil  in  which  the  tree  was  planted  and  have   as  a 

litical 

helped  it  to  its  sturdy  growth. 

lype 


[31] 


.'4. 


THE   AMERICAN   APART   FROM   HIS 
GOVERNMENT 


The  world  has  never  had  a  good  definition  of  the 
word  liberty,  and  the  American  people,  just  now,  are 
much  in  want  of  one.  We  all  declare  for  liberty;  but 
in  using  the  same  word  we  do  not  all  mean  the  same 
thing.  We  assume  the  word  liberty  may  mean  for 
each  man  to  do  as  he  pleases  with  himself,  and  the 
product  of  his  labor;  while  with  others  the  same  word 
may  mean  for  some  men  to  do  as  they  please  with 
other  men,  and  the  product  of  other  men's  labor. 
Here  are  two,  not  only  different  but  incompatible 
things,  called  by  the  same  name,  liberty.  And  it  fol 
lows  that  each  of  the  things  is,  by  the  respective  par 
ties,  called  by  two  different  and  incompatible  names 
—  liberty  and  tyranny.  —  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


THE  AMERICAN  APART  FROM   HIS 
GOVERNMENT 

n 

THE  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  has   The 
already  been  pointed  out,  not  only  erects  a  gov-   American 

ernment  and  prescribes  the  functions  of  its  several   aPa™ 

•    ...!/.  <.  .,      .    ,.  .j     i,     from  his 

parts,  but  it  defines  the  sphere  of  the  individuals  ' 

Govern- 
civil  liberty  and  protects  it.     It  is  in  this  domain  . 

of  civil  liberty  that  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the 
American's  life  is  carried  on,  and  it  is  here  that 
his  peculiar  traits  and  qualities  are  most  fully 
and  naturally  manifested. 

The  average  law-abiding  American  has  but  little   The  American 

.  -  f  .    in  the  domain 

to  do  with  the  government,  and  sees  but  few  of 
its  agents.  Away  from  Washington  or  one  of 
the  larger  centres  of  population,  he  sees  no  gov 
ernment  official  save  the  postmaster.  The  na 
tional  government  lays  no  direct  tax  upon  him, 
and  only  in  rare  instances,  and  after  attaining 
a  certain  local  prominence,  is  he  summoned  to 
serve  as  juror  in  a  United  States  court.  Indeed, 
[35] 


The 

American 
apart 
from  his 
Govern 
ment 


he  sees  but  little  more  of  the  State  government 
and  its  officers.  Occasionally  the  State  legis 
lature  enacts  a  law  which  directly  affects  him  or 
his  business,  but  not  often.  In  fact,  the  whole 
system  of  government,  national,  State,  and  local, 
is  represented  to  the  ordinary  rural  dweller  by  the 
post  office,  and  to  his  fellow  in  the  city  or  town 
by  the  policeman  and  the  fire  department.  The 
American  has  up  to  this  time  lived  a  life  fairly 
free  from  official  surveillance  and  control.  He 
has  been  left  to  his  own  resources,  and  that  very 
fact  has  been  the  making  of  him.  J 

The  tendency,  strongly  marked  in  every  Euro 
pean  country,  to  extend  to  the  individual  the 
increasingly  paternal  care  and  oversight  of  the 
government,  is  manifest  in  the  United  States  as 
well,  but  it  is  so  repugnant  to  American  traditions, 
and  so  at  war  with  the  principles  that  have  made 
America  what  it  is,  that  every  proposal  for  its 
advance  is  strongly  resisted.  So  long  as  develop 
ments  of  this  kind  confine  themselves  to  safe 
guarding  the  public  health,  to  preventing  manifest 
injustice  and  fraud,  and  to  limiting  law-given 
privilege,  they  can,  however,  readily  be  defended 
[36] 


and  justified ;  for  we  have  passed  forever  beyond   The 

the  rule  of  laissez-faire.     But  when  they  attempt  American 

to  regulate  and  curtail  private  business,  to  limit   aPart 

,    .  „  .  .  .  from  his 

personal  fortunes  tor  purely  punitive   purposes, 

Govern- 
and  to  spy  upon  the  private  life  of  individuals,  . 

they  are  so  obnoxious  to  the  American  instinct 
that  they  will  not  be  permitted  by  the  people  — 
until  their  national  character  is  wholly  changed 
—  even  if  measures  of  such  a  kind  could  success 
fully  pass  the  scrutiny  of  the  courts. 

The  American  is  self-reliant  by  nature  and  by  His  self- 
tradition.     His    forefathers    braved    the    dangers 
of  the  unknown  seas  and  the  risks  of  a  strange 
and  unsettled  land  in  order  to  try  their  fortunes 
on  the   other   side   of  the   world.     Even  to-day 
it  is  the  Lithuanian,  the  Italian,  or  the  Scandi 
navian  of   imagination   and  energy,  and  not  the 
opposite  type,  who  leaves  his  old  home,  and  makes 
part  of  the  tide  of  emigration  to  America.     This 
self-reliance    and    independence    manifest    them-      ^ 
selves  in  many  ways.     They  make  forever  im^ 
possible  the  establishment  of  any  fixed  and  per- 
manent  social  and  economic  classes  in  America. 
Almost  without  exception  the  menTwtlo~to-3ay 


The 

American 
apart 
from  his 
Govern 
ment 


occupy  the  most  conspicuous  positions  in  the 
United  States  have  worked  their  way  up,  by  their 
own  ability,  from  very  humble  beginnings.  The 
heads  of  the  great  universities  were  every  one  of 
them  not  long  ago  humble  and  poorly  compen 
sated  teachers.  The  most  distinguished  judges 
began  life  as  struggling  barristers  with  their  own 
way  to  make.  Nineteen  of  the  men  who  to-day 
direct  the  great  transportation  systems  of  the 
country,  and  who  command  very  large  salaries, 
were,  in  every  case,  a  short  generation  ago,  wage- 
earners  of  the  humblest  kind  in  the  service  of  one 
/or  another  of  the  railway  companies.1  This 
unlimited  opportunity  to  rise,  and  to  rise  young, 
acts  as  a  perpetual  stimulus  to  the  American 
youth,  and  spurs  him  on  to  master  some  calling  V 
or  career.  It  is  a  spur  to  ambition  and  an  incen- 
'ive  to  hard  work.  No  observation  of  American 
life  is  correct  and  no  prediction  in  regard  to  its 
future  will  be  justified  that  proceeds  upon  the 
assumption  that  there  are  in  America  fixed  and 
^stable  economic  classes. 


1  Harper's  Weekly,  New  York,  June  20,  1908,  p.  12. 
[38] 


This  explains  why  teachers  of  the   socialistic    The 
philosophy  find  so  much  difficulty  in  arousing  a   American 

feeling  of  class  consciousness  among  the  wage-   aPa 

from  his 

earners  of  the  United  States,  for  the  wage-earners  ' 

Govern- 

have  no  possible  intention  of  remaining  such  if  meni 

they  can  help  it,  and  they  look  forward  with  cer 
tainty  to  having  their  children,  well  trained  in  The  oppor- 

.     .  tunities  of 

the  public  schools,  gam  positions  as  independent  American  life 

property  owners  or  employers.  They  see  ex 
amples  of  such  changes  all  about  them,  and  hope 
equally  to  profit  by  the  opportunities  that  Amer 
ican  life  affords. 

Because  the  American  has  been  so  successful   Attitude 

toward 
in  acquiring  a  fortune,  because  so  many  men  have   money 

risen  from  the  smallest  possible  beginnings  to  the 
possession  of  great  riches,  and  because  the  country  I**^ 
as  a  whole  is  so  enormously  wealthy,  the  American 
is  generally  supposed  by  Europeans  and  by  not 
a  few  Americans  who  are  but  superficial  observers 
of  their  own  people,  to  be  given  over  to  money- 
getting,  and  to  be  enamoured  of  money  for  its  own 
sake.  Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  fact. 
The  American  cares  much  less  for  money  than  the 
Frenchman,  less  even  than  the  Englishman  or  the 
[39] 


The 

American 
apart 
from  his 
Govern 
ment 


German.  His  main  ambition  is  successful  self- 
expression,  the  putting  forth  of  all  his  powers  in 
order  to  gain  a  desired  end,  or  to  accomplish  a 
difficult  purpose.  The  money  that  comes  with 
success  of  this  kind  the  American  takes  gladly 
as  the  outward  and  visible  sign  and  measure  of 
what  he  has  done.  But  the  money  itself  he  treats 
as  a  toy,  or  —  if  of  finer  moral  calibre  —  as  a 
trust,  to  be  in  some  way  administered  for  the  public 
good,  after  making  provision  for  his  own  family. 
This  is  the  reason  of  the  constant  stream  of  bene 
factions,  great  and  small,  in  the  United  States. 
Universities,  colleges,  hospitals,  asylums,  libraries, 
public  undertakings  and  memorials  of  every  kind 
are  founded  and  supported  by  private  bene 
factions  of  this  sort. 

The  ethical  and  political  value  of  this  state  of 
affairs  is  very  great.  The  sense  of  responsi 
bility  for  the  administration  of  great  wealth,  and 
the  sense  of  obligation  in  regard  to  it,  are  valuable 
moral  assets  for  any  nation.  The  political  and 
economic  system  which  opens  the  way  to  indi- 
vidual  self-expression  and  achievement  of  every 
kind,  which  assures  to  each  individual  the  un- 
[40] 


disturbed    possession    of   the    fruits    of   his    own    The 
efforts,   and  which  develops  in  him  a  sense  of  American 

obligation  to  the  community  for  the  proper  use   °Pa 

,  .        .        .  from  his 

and  expenditure  ot  his  gains,  is  tar  preierable  to  ' 

Govern- 
one  which  commits  the   political   and  economic 

ment 

injustice  of  adjusting  the  rewards  to  needs  and  to 
desires,  instead  of  to  achievements,  in  the  hope 
that  thereby  equality  and  happiness  —  a  false 
equality  and  an  illusory  happiness  —  will  be 
promoted. 

Contrary,    perhaps,    to    common    belief,    the   The  Ameri- 

T  .   T  ,  can's  emo-     1*^ 

American  has  a  highly  emotional  temperament.   tionai  tem. 

His  so-called  practicality  is  in  part  tempered  and  Perament 
in  part  controlled  by  warmth  of  feeling  and  a 
persistent  idealism  that  are  very  remarkable. 
It  was  not  practicality  but  idealism  that  settled 
the  Atlantic  seaboard.  It  was  not  practicality 
but  idealism  that  pushed  out  across  the  Alleghany 
Mountains,  bridging  rivers,  felling  forests,  plough 
ing  prairies,  building  homes,  and  opening  a  new 
world  to  settlement  and  to  civilization.  The 
American  will  sacrifice  any  amount  of  money, 
undergo  any  privation  or  suffering,  put  forth  any 
effort,  for  his  beliefs.  The  Civil  War  proved  that 
[41] 


The 


beyond  perad venture.     It  is  commonplace,  too, 


American     that    he    responds    quickly    and    sympathetically 


apart 
from  his 
Govern 
ment 


J 


to  a  noble  idea  or  a  lofty  sentiment.  In  the  lit 
erature  of  his  own  language,  he  is  touched  and 
moved  by  the  best,  both  in  poetry  and  in  prose. 
The  American  people  show  their  best  and  finest 
qualities  in  time  of  great  national  grief  and  sor 
row.  During  the  long  dreary  weeks  when  Presi 
dent  Garfield  lay  dying,  and  again  when  President 
McKinley  was  shot,  the  emotional  temper  of  the  • 
people  was  so  splendid  as  to  be  awe-inspiring. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  unreasoning  outburst  of 
blind  rage  and  hate  which  followed  the  blow 
ing  up  of  the  battleship  Maine,  in  the  harbor  of 
Havana,  just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Spanish- 
American  War,  was  something  to  be  heartily 
ashamed  of. 

Because    of    this    strongly    emotional    temper 
j   great  waves  of  political  interest  and  feeling  sweep 
over  the  body  politic  in  a  way  that  astounds  and 
disconcerts   the   observer   who   is   used   to   more 
intellectual  processes.     Examples  of  these  waves 
are  the  so-called  granger  and  greenback  move 
ments  of  the  70's,  the  Free-silver  movement  of 
[42] 


the  80's  and  90's,  as  well  as  the  movements  of    The 
to-day   against  the   trusts,   and   in   favor  of  the   American 

prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic.     The  process  in   aPart 

,   from  his 
all  these  matters  is  one  and  the  same.     A  real  ' 

Govern- 
grievance  or  abuse,  more  or  less  severe,  exists,  . 

and  for  it  some  person  or  party  proposes  a  prompt 
and  plausible  remedy.  In  their  anxiety  to  bring 
the  grievance  or  abuse  to  an  end,  large  numbers 
of  people  grasp  eagerly  at  the  proffered  remedy 
and  become  ardent  in  its  support.  The  current 
of  feeling  runs  on  like  a  torrent,  but  gradually 
the  intellect  asserts  itself,  and  after  careful  dis 
cussion  and  examination,  the  proposed  remedy 
for  the  grievance  or  abuse  is  accepted  in  a  modi 
fied  form,  or  rejected  entirely.  In  all  these 
experiences  the  dangerous  moment  comes  when 

ambitiojis-  —demagogues,     aj)t at inflammatory 

speech,  try  to  use  the  people's  aroused  feelings 
as  a  means  to  gain  position  and  power  for  them 
selves.  This  exploitation  of  the  people  is  a  danger 
inherent  in  all  democracies.  There  is  no  safe 
guard  against  it  but  the  native  good  sense  and  the 
firm  hold  on  political  principle  of  the  people 
themselves. 

[43] 


The  He  would  be  but  a  poor  observer  of  the  Amer- 

Amencan  I  Jcan  people  who  failed  to  take  note  of  the  strong 

apart        Y   hold    which    religious    belief    has    upon    them. 

from  his     I  ^n    ......  *  •,  * 

\  Christianity  in  some  one  ot  its  many  torms  is  a 
Govern- 

*  part  of  their  nature.     Undoubtedly  the  religious 

observance  of  Sunday  and  church-going  are  not 

The  Americans  so  universal  as  they  once  were,   particularly  in^ 

a  Christian 

people  the  more  populous  communities ;  yet  tor  the  most 

part  not  to  have  some  church  connection  is  held 
to  be  as  lacking  in  respectability  as  not  to  have 
a  regular  occupation.  There  are  in  the  United 
States  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  ministers 
of  religion,  more  than  two  hundred  thousand 
church  buildings,  and  over  thirty-two  million 
communicants.  In  small  villages  and  in  rural 
districts,  and  to  some  extent  elsewhere,  the  church 
is  the  social  as  well  as  the  religious  centre.  The 
clergy  in  the  rural  districts  almost  uniformly 
exercise  a  strong  influence  over  their  parishioners 
in  all  matters.  Religious  groupings  in  the  South, 
and  often  in  the  West  also,  are  the  basis  of  social 
classification.  Certainly  religious  forms  persist 
even  if  beliefs  are  weakened  or  altered.  All 
important  political  conventions  are  opened  with 


prayer.      The  daily  sessions  of    the  Senate  and    The 
House  of    Representatives    and    of    many  State  American 

legislatures  are  opened  with  prayer.      Chaplains  aPa 

from  his 
are  provided  by  law  for  the  army  and  navy.  ' 

This  religious  influence  and  this  regard  for  the 
Christian  religion  go  back  to  the  very  beginning 
of  American  history.  They  may  be  found  in  the 
commission  given  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  of 
Spain  to  Columbus,  in  that  issued  by  Queen 
Elizabeth  of  England  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  in 
the  first  charter  of  Virginia,  in  the  Compact  by 
the  Pilgrims  on  the  Mayflower,  in  the  Funda 
mental  Orders  of  Connecticut,  in  the  Charter  of 
Privileges  granted  by  William  Penn  to  the  Prov 
ince  of  Pennsylvania,  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  and  in  the  constitutions  of  the  several 
States.  The  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
speaking  by  Mr.  Justice  Brewer,  has  declared 
the  religious  character  of  the  American  people  in 
no  uncertain  terms.  The  Court  said  l :  — 

"  If  we  pass  beyond  these  matters  to  a  view  of 
American  life  as  expressed  by  its  laws,  its  business, 
its  customs,  and  its  society,  we  find  everywhere 

1  Holy  Trinity  Church  v.  United  States,  143  U.  S.  (1891). 
[45] 


The 


a  clear  recognition  of  the  same  truth.     Among 


apart 
from  his 
Govern 
ment 


American  other  matters  note  the  following:  The  form  of 
oath  universally  prevailing,  concluding  with  an 
appeal  to  the  Almighty;  the  custom  of  opening 
sessions  of  all  deliberative  bodies  with  prayer; 
the  prefatory  words  of  all  wills,  'In  the  name  of 
God,  Amen ' ;  the  laws  respecting  the  observance 
of  the  Sabbath,  with  a  general  cessation  of  all 
secular  business,  and  the  closing  of  courts,  legis 
latures,  and  other  similar  public  assemblies  on 
that  day;  the  churches  and  church  organizations 
which  abound  in  every  city,  town,  and  hamlet ; 
the  multitude  of  charitable  organizations  existing 
everywhere  under  Christian  auspices ;  the  gigan 
tic  missionary  associations,  with  general  sup 
port,  and  aiming  to  establish  Christian  missions 
in  every  quarter  of  the  globe.  These  and  many 
other  matters  which  might  be  noticed  add  a  vol 
ume  of  unofficial  declarations  to  the  mass  of  or 
ganic  utterances  that  this  is  a  Christian  nation." 
There  is  of  course  no  established  church  in  the 
United  States,  and  no  legal  or  official  preference 
of  one  form  of  religious  belief  to  another.  The 
fact  remains  nevertheless,  as  the  Supreme  Court 
[46] 


has  said,  that  the  United  States  is  a  Christian    The 
nation.     After  taking  into  consideration  the  ab-   American 

solute  religious  tolerance  that  prevails,  it  is  still   aPar 

i     n/r  i  from  his 

true  that  the  religion  ot  the  Jew,  the  Mahometan,   ' 

Govern 
or  the  Confucian  does  not  have  and  cannot  have 

the  same  place  and  influence  in  American  life  as 
the  reV'gion  of  the  Christian.  The  United  States 
is  both  in  law  and  in  fact  a  Christian  nation,  and 
it  would  be  so  even  if  a  majority  of  its  inhabitants 
were  not  —  as  they  are  —  adherents  of  some 
form  of  the  Christian  faith.  It  is  so,  despite  the 
fact  that  a  very  large  number  of  its  inhabitants 
profess  no  form  of  the  Christian  faith  whatsoever. 
To  say  that  the  United  States  is  in  law  and  in 
fact  a  Christian  nation  means  that  the  whole 
point  of  view  of  the  people,  as  well  as  their  in 
stitutions  and  traditions,  are  those  which  have 
been  developed  under  the  dominance  of  the  Chris 
tian  faith,  first  in  Western  Europe  and  then  in 
America,  and  because  of  that  dominance.  The 
legal  calendar  is  the  Christian  calendar,  and  it  is 
inconceivable  that  there  should  be  any  other.  • 

On  the  other  hand,  the  United  States  is  a  country  Religious 
in  which  there   is  complete  separation  between 
[47] 


The 

American 
apart 
from  his 
Govern 
ment 


church  and  state,  and  which  is  happily  catholic 
in  spirit,  and  hospitable  to  citizens  of  every  race 
and  every  creed.  Therefore,  care  is  always 
taken  to  observe  the  constitutional  guarantee  that 
the  free  exercise  of  religion  shall  not  be  prohibited, 
and  the  adherents  of  any  given  creed,  however 
divergent  from  Christianity,  are  allowed  to  live 
in  accordance  with  their  traditions  and  con 
victions,  provided  only  that  in  so  doing  they  do 
not  come  in  conflict  with  the  laws  of  the  land. 
It  is  because  of  this  policy  that  Mormons  are 
permitted  to  live  in  the  United  States,  while  their 
practice  of  jpolygamy  is  now  prohibited. 

That  this  attitude  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  is  not  inimical  to  the  interests  of  religious 
bodies  is  proved  both  by  the  fact  that  these  bod 
ies  are  wholly  satisfied  with  it,  and  that  they  thrive 
under  it.  The  many  vexatious  problems  that  un 
der  modern  conditions  confront  an  established 
church  are  wholly  avoided,  and  the  churches  each 
and  all  grow  and  flourish.  Perhaps  nowhere  in 
the  world  is  the  Roman  Catholic  church  so  fortu 
nately  situated  as  in  the  United  States ;  that  it  is 
able  to  stand  without  state  support,  its  more  than 
[48] 


ten  million  communicants  in  the  United  States    The 
amply  prove.  American 

The  standards  of  business  honor,  as  well  as   aPa 

„  ,  ~  .  u.  ,    .     .,      from  his 

those  of  business  efficiency,  are  very  high  in  the  ' 

Govern- 
United    States.     The    credit    system    is    widely  ment   - 

extended,  and  it  rarely  results  in  serious  loss.  ^/ 
The  people  have  invested  their  savings  very  largely  High  stand- 
in  the  stocks  and  bonds  of  railways  and  industrial  negs  honor 
corporations,  in  most  cases  to  their  profit  and 
great  advantage.  The  financial,  operating,  and 
manufacturing  managers  of  these  corporations 
are  almost  without  exception  men  of  unusual 
ability,  great  technical  knowledge  and  skill, 
and  scrupulous  honesty.  Such  huge  under 
takings  as  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation, 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company,  and  the 
Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railway  Company 
are  models  of  good  management  and  fair  dealing. 
Their  size  and  the  character  of  their  business 
makes  them  really  public,  not  private,  organiza 
tions.  Yet,  of  course,  they  are  in  no  sense  gov 
ernmental. 

In  a  period  of  rapidly  expanding  business  activ 
ity  and  great  accumulation  of  wealth,  such  as  have       \^ 
[49] 


The  J  marked  the  history  of  the  United  States  since 
American  the  Civil  War,  some  adventurers,  speculators, 
and  exploiters  have  found  themselves  in  promi 
nent  places  of  trust  and  responsibility.  Some 
such  —  not  many,  in  reality  a  very  few  —  have 
misused  their  opportunities  and  betrayed  their 
trust.  This  fact  has  been  carried  all  over  the 
world,  and  the  wholly  unjustifiable  inference  has 
been  drawn  that  in  America  business  honor  and 
business  honesty  are  at  a  low  ebb.  The  contrary 
is  the  case.  New  York,  which  now  rivals  London 
in  financial  importance,  administers  hundreds 
of  millions  of  trust  funds  and  deposits  with  scru 
pulous  honesty  and  fairness.  The  heads  and 
directors  of  the  leading  banks,  trust  companies, 
and  commercial  houses  of  New  York  are  among 
the  best  known  and  most  honored  of  \merican 
citizens.  They  hold  fast  with  jealous  care  to  the 
high  traditions  of  honor  and  conservatism  which 
have  lasted  for  more  than  a  century. 

Similar  conditions  exist  in  other  parts  of  the 
country.     The  local  banker  in  a  village  or  small 
town  in  the  interior  is   almost   certainly  a  man 
of  high  repute  and  public  spirit.     He  is  proud  of 
[50] 


p 


his  community  and  solicitous  for  its  welfare  and    The 
growth.     The    same    is   true    of   the    mercantile  American 
classes.     Of  the  whole  vast  business  of  the  United   aPart 

States  it  is  estimated  that  only  five  per  cent,  one-    „ 

Govem- 
twenti^h  part,  is  settled  for  with  cash  payments.  . 

The  remaining  nineteen-twentieths  is  settled  for 
by  bank  checks  or  other  instruments  of  credit. 
This  would  not  be  possible  in  a  country  whose 
banking  and  commercial  class  were  tricky  and 
dishonest. 

Despite  his  material  success,  the  American  has   The  American 
still  much  to  learn  about  the  conduct  of  business, 
particularly  with  foreign  nations.     He  is  apt  to 
confuse  attention  to  business  with  physical  pres 
ence  at  his  office  or  factory.     He  has  yet  to  learn 
that  twelve  months'  work  may  be  done  in  ten 
months  or  even  in  eleven,  but  that  it  cannot  pos 
sibly   be   done    in   twelve.     Relaxation,    outdoor 
life,  physical  exercise,  and  change  of  scene  refresh  / 
and  invigorate  both  mind  and  body,  and  thereby  \ 
contribute  to  business  efficiency.     This  lesson  is 
being  learned  by  Americans,   but   slowly.     Nor 
have  American  business   men   mastered  to  any 
large  extent  the  secret  of  carrying  on  a  successful 
[51] 


The 

American 
apart 
from  his 
Govern 
ment 


The  large 
corporations 


foreign  trade.  To  make  what  the  buyer  wants, 
not  what  the  manufacturer  prefers  or  thinks  the 
buyer  ought  to  have,  must  become  the  controlling 
principle.  Buyers  in  other  countries  have  their 
own  strong  preferences  as  to  style,  marks,  and 
forms  of  packing.  The  American  trader  often 
neglects  these  details,  and  fails  thereby  to  compete 
successfully  with  his  English  or  his  German  trade 
rival.  But  he  is  learning  rapidly,  as  the  mount 
ing  value  of  the  manufactured  goods  exported 
from  the  United  States  plainly  indicates. 

The  organization  of  the  large  corporations, 
popularly  but  quite  improperly  known  as  trusts, 
has  given  a  strong  impetus  to  business  efficiency 
in  America.  They  have  greatly  reduced  waste 
in  production,  and  they  have  increased  productive 
ness  while  generally  reducing  the  price  of  the 
commodities  in  which  they  deal.  They  have 
opened  new  and  much  more  lucrative  avenues  of 
employment  to  men  of  capacity  and  zeal.  They 
have  excited  the  animosity  of  the  small  because 
they  are  big,  and  they  have  incurred  widespread 
public  hostility  because  their  managers  have 
sometimes  interfered  in  matters  of  legislation,  or 
[52] 


have  tried  to  secure  special  and  unfair  advantages    The 
from  the  common  carriers.     These  abuses,  how-  American 

ever,  are  now  correcting  themselves,  or  are  being  aPa 

,      from  his 
corrected,  and  public  sentiment  in  regard  to  the 

Govern- 
large   corporations  may  reasonably  be  expected  , 

to  change.  The  large  corporations  are  both  a 
legitimate  and  a  necessary  outgrowth  of  modern 
economic  conditions  as  these  exist  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  balance  of  advantage  and  dis 
advantage  is  largely  in  their  favor,  provided  only 
that  they  be  restrained  from  using  their  great 
strength  inequitably  or  from  damaging  some  other 
and  more  important  public  interest.  A  corpora 
tion  is  cooperative,  and  cooperation  is  the  best 
use  an  individual  can  make  of  his  individuality. 

Some   years   ago   a   distinguished   Englishman  The  West 
visited  the  United  States,  and  spent  the  first  three   ative  Of  the 
weeks  of  his  stay  in  Boston  and  then  three  weeks  United  states 
in  New  York.     Shortly  before  sailing  for  home 
he  expressed  his  intention  of  writing  a  book  about 
the  country  whose  hospitality  he  had  so  much 
enjoyed,    and    was    greatly    surprised    when    an 
American  friend  remarked:    "You  cannot  pos 
sibly  write  a  book  about  the  United  States;  you 
[53] 


The 

American 
apart 
from  his 
Govern 
ment 


have  not  been  to  the  United  States  at  all;  you 
have  only  visited  New  York  and  Boston/' 
Though  spoken  in  jest,  these  words  convey  a 
truth  that  is  almost  always  overlooked.  While 
New  York  and  Boston  are,  of  course,  genuinely 
American,  yet  they  are  so  near  to  Europe,  and 
their  relations  with  Europe  are  so  many  and  so 
close,  that  a  visit  to  them  does  not  suffice  to  give 
to  the  visitor  either  an  accurate  or  a  complete 
impression  of  American  life  and  of  the  American 

habit  of  mind.     The  American  type  is  seen  at  its 

i 
purest  and  best  in  any  one  of  the  hundred  or  more 

small  cities  and  towns  in  the  Middle  West.  If 
one  were  to  select  a  restricted  area  in  which  to 
study  American  life  and  American  characteris 
tics,  he  would  do  best  to  choose  northern  Illinois 
and  the  adjacent  parts  of  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  and 
Minnesota.  Here  the  soil  is  rich,  the  settlements 
are  old  enough  to  have  an  aspect  of  comfort  and 
order,  the  population  is  well-to-do,  there  is  little 
or  no  extreme  poverty,  the  public  schools  are  of 
the  best,  churches  abound  and  are  strong  in 
influence,  and  the  average  of  intelligence  and  of 
intellectual  interest  is  very  high.  Here  Europe 
[54] 


is  perfectly  familiar,  but  not  quite  so  adjacent  as    The 

in  New  York  or  Boston.     The  population  read   American 

the  best  books,  and  take  in  the  best  magazines,   aPar 

...  .       ,  .   from  his 

reviews,    and    weekly  journals.     The    boys    and   ' 

Govern- 
girls  are  sent  to  college  almost  as  a  matter  of  men^ 

course,  usually  in  the  tax-supported  State  uni 
versities.  There  is  little  vice  and  less  crime, 
and  both  the  manners  and  morals  of  the  people 
are  excellent.  In  Indiana,  Missouri,  Kansas, 
Nebraska,  Colorado,  California,  and  elsewhere, 
similar  conditions  abound,  but  the  particular 
part  of  the  country  that  has  been  named  may 
justly  be  taken  as  truly  American  in  a  repre 
sentative  sense. 

The  traveller  through  the  United  States  who  is   The  American 
...  as  a  citizen  of 

so  fortunate  as  to  meet  with  really  representative   Of  the  world 

men  in  their  homes  and  clubs,  who  is  not  restricted 
merely  to  seeing  the  country  and  the  people  in 
hotels  and  through  the  windows  of  a  railway  car, 
cannot  fail  to  be  impressed  by  their  general  mental 
alertness,  by  their  wide  and  accurate  information 
as  to  men  and  things  in  other  countries,  by  their 
knowledge  of  literature  and  scientific  progress, 
and  by  their  fairness  and  openness  of  mind.  The 
[55] 


The 

American 
apart 
pom  his 
Govern 
ment 


L 


old-time  American  habit  of  decrying  all  languages, 
all  countries,  and  all  culture  not  its  own,  is  wear 
ing  away.  That  habit  marked  a  provincial  self- 
assertive  state  of  mind  which  not  unnaturally 
succeeded  one  of  colonial  subordination  and 
dependence.  This  growth  from  colonial  subordi 
nation  to  a  provincial  self-assertiveness  was  as 
sisted  by  what  Lowell  calls  a  certain  habit  of 
condescension  in  foreigners. 

While  the  spread  of  intelligence  results  in  quite 
too  hasty  judgment  of  men  and  events,  yet  that 
same  spread  of  intelligence  provides  the  means 
for  correcting  such  hasty  judgments.  Travel 
broadens  the  American's  view  of  life  and  helps 
him  to  the  material  for  a  comparative  study  of 
his  social  and  political  problems.  Of  late  the 
references  in  the  Congressional  debates  to  the 
experience  of  other  nations  in  matters  of  finance 
and  corporate  control  and  in  regard  to  the  rela 
tions  between  capital  and  labor,  have  increased 
greatly  both  in  number  and  in  understanding. 
The  American  of  to-day  feels  himself  decidedly 
^a  citizen  of  the  world,  and  not,  as  was  once  the 
case,  a  citizen  of  a  world  apart.  He  is  now  sen- 
[56] 


sitive    to    foreign    criticism    and    appreciative    of    The 
foreign    approval    and    commendation.     This    is  American 
a    rather    recent    development,    and    one    which   aPart 

marks  a  distinct  step  forward  in  civilization.     To  ' 

Govern- 
stand  in  isolation  is  to  cut  one's  self  off  from  the  ment 

privilege  of  serving  or  of  being  served.       / 

The  dangers  which  America  may  yet  encounter  Possible 
will  not  be  those  which  the  older  peoples  fear.   A 
Economic  pressure  from  without  could  have  no   civilization 
serious   effects;     the    nation's    consuming   power 
is  too  great  and  its  natural  resources  too  varied 
and  too  extensive.     An  offensive  war  against  the 
United  States  is  almost  unthinkable  :  first,  because 
it  would  certainly  be  futile,  and,  secondly,  because 
we  are  rapidly  reaching  a  plane   of  civilization 
where  self-respecting  nations  will  not  go  to  war~-j 
with  each  other. 

The  dangers  which  confront  America  are  quite 
different,  and  will  come,  if  at  all,  from  within. 
The  original  and  persistent  Anglo-Saxon  impulse, 
now  nearly  two  thousand  years  old,  may  conceiv 
ably  lose  its  force.  Its  capacity  to  subdue  and 
to  assimilate  the  alien  elements  brought  to  it 
by  immigration  may  possibly  be  exhausted.  A 
[57] 


The 

American 
apart 
from  his 
Govern 
ment 


The  warning 
of  Washing 
ton 


generation  forgetful  of  the  fundamental  prin 
ciples  upon  which  the  nation  was  built,  may  in 
a  fit  of  passion  or  of  temper  follow  a  popular  but 
shallow  leader  over  a  political  precipice.  The 
reverence  and  regard  for  law  which  alone  make 
a  civilized  state  and  free  institutions  possible  may 
yield  to  passionate  violence  and  to  lawless  ven 
geance,  in  forgetfulness  of  Lincoln's  fine  maxim, 
"There  is  no  grievance  that  is  a  fit  object  of 
redress  by  mqb  law."  No  one  of  these  dangers 
is  imminent,  but  it  would  be  simple  blindness 
not  to  realize  that  they  are  possible. 

One  of  the  wisest  and  most  illuminating  docu 
ments  of  American  history  is  the  farewell  address 
which  Washington  addressed  to  his  countrymen 
in  1796,  when  about  to  retire  from  the  Presidency. 
It  is  the  fortunate  custom  in  the  United  States 
Senate  to  cause  the  farewell  address  to  be  read 
aloud  by  a  senator  on  each  recurring  anniversary 
of  Washington's  birthday.  That  address,  which 
mingles  the  wisdom  of  Washington  with  the  pro 
found  insight  of  Hamilton,  points  out  to  Ameri 
cans  where  their  path  of  safety  as  a  nation  lies. 
With  especial  emphasis,  Washington  counsels 
[58] 


the  spirit  of  obedience  to  law  because  it  is  the  law,    The 
and  not  merely  if  and  because  a  law  meets  the   American 

approval  of  the  individual  upon  whom  the  duty   aPar 

from  his 

of  obedience  rests.     He  points  to  a  spirit  of  law-   ' 

Uovern- 

lessness  as  a  means  of  substituting  the  will  of  a  . 

party  or  faction  for  the  delegated  will  of  the 
nation;  and  that  party  or  faction  often  only  a 
small  but  artful  and  enterprising  minority  of  the 
community.  This  is  an  ever-present  danger  in 
the  United  States.  Small  groups  exert  themselves 
vigorously  to  obtain  certain  acts  of  legislation, 
acts  sometimes  desirable  in  the  public  interest, 
but  more  often  in  aid  or  protection  of  a  selfish  or 
a  special  interest.  Perhaps  they  succeed  in  their 
effort,  and  so  impose  upon  the  community  a  policy 
which  it  does  not  want  or  approve,  but  which  a 
majority  of  its  representatives  had  not  the  wit  or 
the  skill  to  defeat.  This  law  and  a  hundred  like 
it  fall  into  disuse  or  are  openly  violated,  and  so 
operate  to  spread  abroad  a  disregard  or  contempt 
for  the  law  as  such.  The  large  number  of  legis 
lative  bodies  in  the  United  States,  the  passion  of 
many  of  the  people  for  legislating  in  regard  to  all 
sorts  and  kinds  of  things  that  legislation  had  better 
[59] 


The 

American 
apart 
from  his 
Govern 
ment 


leave  alone,  and  the  ease  with  which  much  legis 
lation  of  a  certain  kind  is  accomplished,  are  all 
causes  cooperating  to  weaken  respect  for  law 
and  the  law-abiding  spirit. 

It  is  proper  to  say  that  outbursts  of  lawlessness 
and  disorder,  while  still  numerous  and  shocking, 
are  increasingly  infrequent.  Anything  like  the 
Draft  Riots  of  1863  in  the  city  of  New  York  would 
now  be  impossible.  President  Cleveland's  vig 
orous  and  patriotic  handling  of  the  outbreak  at 
Chicago  in  1894,  over  the  heads  of  the  local  and 
State  officials  who  were  in  sympathy  with  the 
disorderly  classes,  was  a  memorable  act  and  one 
which  makes  any  repetition  of  that  offence  most 
unlikely.  Lynching  still  continues  alike  in  the 
South  —  where  the  problem  is  complicated  by 
strong  race  antagonism  —  and  in  some  parts  of 
the  North;  but  public  sentiment  and  public  offi 
cials  are  much  more  vigorous  in  preventing  and 
in  punishing  such  crimes  than  they  once  were. 
The  law-abid- 1  x  To  obey  the  law  because  it  is  the  law  and  to 
labor  for  its  alteration  or  repeal  in  an  orderly 
way  if  any  given  law  is  repugnant  to  one's  sense 
of  justice,  is  the  first  and  chief  lesson  for  the 
[60] 


ing  spirit 


American   parent   and   the   American   school   to    The 
teach  the  children  of  to-day  who  are  to  be  the   American 

responsible  American  citizens  of  to-morrow.     No   aPar 

.  ,      ,,  AU     from  his 

one  ever  stated  the  dangers  of  a  spread  of  the  ' 

Govcrn- 
spirit  of  lawlessness  better  than  Lincoln  himself.   ment 

"  I  know  the  American  people  are  much  attached, 
to  their  government,"  he  said.  "I  know  they 
would  suffer  much  for  its  sake;  I  know  they 
would  endure  evils  long  and  patiently  before 
they  would  ever  think  of  exchanging  it  for  an 
other,  —  yet,  notwithstanding  all  this,  if  the  laws 
be  continually  despised  and  disregarded,  if  their 
rights  to  be  secure  in  their  persons  and  property 
are  held  by  no  better  tenure  than  the  caprice  of  a 
mob,  the  alienation  of  their  affections  from  the 
government  is  the  natural  consequence;  and  to 
that,  sooner  or  later,  it  must  come." 

The  only  alternative  to  a  spirit  of  obedience  to 
law  for  its  own  sake,  is  the  man  on  horseback. 

But  the  American  finds  protection  against  the 
dangers  which  might  easily  threaten  his  civili 
zation,  in  his  natural  cheerfulness,  his  unabated 

1  Complete  Works  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  edited  by  Nico- 
lay  and  Hay  (1902),  I  :  11-12. 
[61] 


The 

American 
apart 
from  his 
Govern 
ment 


The  mob  and 
the  people 


self-confidence,  and  his  natural  optimism.  He 
cannot  be  persuaded  that  come  what  may,  things 
will  not  turn  out  well,  and  if  necessary,  he  will 
put  his  sturdy  shoulder  to  the  wheel,  and  see  that 
they  do  turn  out  well.  He  rises  to  a  crisis  of  any 
kind,  whether  in  his  personal  or  family  fortunes, 
or  in  public  affairs,  with  surprising  good  humor, 
readiness,  and  skill.  He  rarely  remains  defeated 
long.  So  far  as  his  political  institutions  are  con 
cerned,  his  confidence  in  them  is  such  that  in  his 
heart,  no  matter  what  dolorous  language  he  may 
use  in  the  exigencies  of  a  political  contest,  he  does 
not  believe  that  even  his  most  distrusted  political 
opponent  can  really  injure  or  overturn  them. 

In  a  democracy,  the  line  between  the  mob  and 
the  people  is  a  narrow  one.  The  same  individuals 
compose  both  the  mob  and  the  people.  When 
reason  is  unhinged  by  passion,  and  when  appetite 
rules  the  will,  then  the  people  are  the  mob. 
When  intelligent  reflection  asserts  itself  and  when 
action  is  based  on  principle,  then  the  mob  becomes 
the  people.  Just  because  this  line  between  the 
mob  and  the  people  is  so  narrow,  the  responsi 
bility  attached  to  leadership  in  the  American 
[62] 


democracy    is    correspondingly    heavy.     Violent    The 
and   inconsidered   speech,   appeals   addressed   to  American 

the  appetites  of  men  and  to  their  baser  natures,   aPar 

.  from  his 
exhortations  that  lead  to  envy  and  jealousy  of  ' 

those  who  have  gained  just  distinction  or  earned 
honest  wealth,  are  all  appeals  not  to  the  people, 
but  to  the  mob.  He  who  really,  not  merely 
verbally  and  vocally,  puts  his  trust  in  the  people, 
trusts  their  higher  instincts  and  makes  his  appeal 
to  them.  Such  a  leader  clearly  and  patiently 
expounds  principles  and  illustrates  them.  He 
urges  policies  on  grounds  of  justice,  mercy,  na 
tional  benefit ;  he  never  tries  to  develop  a  class 
consciousness  as  opposed  to  a  consciousness  of 
common  citizenship,  much  less  attempts  to  array 
class  against  class.  He  hears  all  sides,  and  acts 
as  his  conscience  and  his  reason  alone  dictate. 
The  greatest  triumph  of  the  American  people  it 
to  have  produced  such  a  leader,  to  have  followed 
him  through  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  national 
death,  and  to  revere  increasingly  his  memory. 
He  was  Abraham  Lincoln. 


[63] 


THE   AMERICAN  AND    THE 
INTELLECTUAL   LIFE 


Culture  is  the  suggestion,  from  certain  best  thoughts, 
that  a  man  has  a  range  of  affinities  through  which  he 
can  modulate  the  violence  of  any  master-tones  that 
have  a  droning  preponderance  in  his  scale,  and  succor 
him  against  himself.  Culture  redresses  the  balance, 
puts  him  among  his  equals  and  superiors,  revives  the 
delicious  sense  of  sympathy  and  warns  him  of  the 
dangers  of  solitude  and  repulsion.  —  RALPH  WALDO 
EMERSON. 


4 


THE  AMERICAN  AND  THE 
INTELLECTUAL   LIFE 

ON  July  4,  1778,  in  the  first  oration  known  to   The 
have  been  delivered  in  the  United  States  in  com-   American 

memoration    of   the    nation's    independence    and   a       ™e 

»    .L  , .         TA     •  i   Intellectual 

on    the    anniversary    of    its    declaration,    David 

Life 
Ramsay,  a  distinguished  South  Carolina  publicist 

and  man  of  letters,  predicted  that  literature  would 
flourish  in  America  and  that  American  indepen 
dence  would  mark  an  illustrious  epoch,  remark 
able  for  the  spreading  and  improvement  of  science. 
Already,  he  pointed  out,  a  zeal  for  promoting 
learning,  hitherto  unknown,  had  begun  to  over 
spread  the  United  States.  What  has  been  the 
result  ?  How  far  have  these  prophecies  beer 
justified  ? 

By   common   consent   the    United    States   has  The  basis  of 
taken  a  place  among  the  most  enlightened  and   ^e^am 
cultivated    nations   of   the   earth.     This   follows, 
however,  by  no  means  from  the  wide  distribution      . 
[67] 


The 


of  wealth  and  material  comfort;    for  those  con- 


American     ditions  are  entirely  compatible  with  a  sluggish  and 


and  the 

Intellectu 

Life 


inert  civilization  of  the  higher  sort.  Nor  does  it 
follow  altogether  from  the  free  and  liberal  char 
acter  of  the  country's  political  and  economic 
institutions;  for  they  may  be  abused  as  well  as 
used.  It  results,  rather,  from  an  intense  devotion 
to  high  intellectual  and  moral  ideals,  and  to  a 
never-failing  faith  in  the  power  of  education  to 
promote  both  individual  and  national  happiness, 
efficiency,  and  virtue.  The  American  people  are 
almost  Socratic  in  their  acceptance  of  the  prin-  »  / 
ciple  that  knowledge  will  lead  to  right  and  useful 
action  and  conduct.  History  has  done  much  to 
dispel  the  illusion  that  Socrates  cherished,  for 
knowledge  and  virtue  are  certainly  not  inter 
changeable  terms.  The  American  people,  never 
theless,  have  an  almost  fanatical  belief  in  educa 
tion  because  of  the  practical  results  which  they 
feel  certain  will  flow  from  it.  In  large  measure 
these  expected  practical  results  do  flow  from 
education,  and  if  the  formula  be  not  pressed  too 
far,  the  American  conviction  as  to  education  is 
quite  defensible. 

[68] 


Behind  all  this  lies  the  fundamental  and  original  The 

Puritanism  which  gives  so  much  of  its  form  to  American 

American  life.     It  is  a  Puritanism,  transformed,  an        e 

.  .  Intellectual 
overlaid,  and  warmed  into  a  more  generous  glow, 

Ijij  e 
but  still  it  is  Puritanism.     Puritanism  built  New 

England,  and  for  nearly  a  hundred  years  New  The  under- 


England  powerfully  influenced  the  United  States. 
If  New  England  now  seems  isolated  and  pro 
vincial,  and  if  its  identity  is  almost  lost  through 
the  admixture  of  large  Irish  and  French-Canadian 
elements  in  the  population,  yet  the  fact  must 
never  be  overlooked  that  New  England  Puri 
tanism,  built  on  the  rock  of  Geneva,  is  the  secure 
theological  and  philosophical  foundation  on  which 
all  that  is  distinctive  in  American  life  and  culture 
has  been  built.  No  philosophy  of  life  has  been 
so  influential  in  America  as  that  of  John  Calvin. 
This  fact  explains  much  of  the  narrowness  and 
lack  of  sympathy  with  strange  customs  and  views 
which  one  observes  among  Americans,  and  it 
explains  also  much  of  the  determination  and 
energy  of  the  American  temperament.  Devo 
tion  to  duty  for  its  own  sake  and  a  determination 
to  persevere  to  the  end  in  any  undertaking  simply 
[69] 


The  because  it  has  been  undertaken,  are  almost  uni- 

American     versal  American  applications  of  Calvinism.     The 

ideal  has  always  influenced  the  American  more 
Intellectual  ,  .  .  . 

than  the  material,  but  ne  manifests  grim  and  ill- 
Life 

concealed   satisfaction   when   the   pursuit   of  his 

ideal  brings  with  it  a  material  reward. 
The  great  While  American  conditions  have  been  extremely 

Americans 

\s'  favorable  to  individual  initiative  and  accomplish 
ment,  and  while  the  average  of  accomplishment, 
taking  the  whole  population  into  account,  is  high, 
yet  achievements  of  the  very  first  class,  judged 
by  world  standards,  have  not  been  numerous  in 
America.  If  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  cen 
turies  were  searched  for  great  spirits  and  great 
intelligences  of  the  highest  rank,  America  could 
furnish  perhaps  ten,  —  not  altogether  a  bad  show 
ing  for  a  people  so  new,  with  economic  and  politi 
cal  tasks  of  such  magnitude  pressing  for  accom 
plishment,  which  tasks,  almost  of  necessity,  drew 
the  highest  talent  to  themselves,  and  away  from 
science,  art,  and  letter.  These  ten  would,  in 
my  judgment,  be  Jonathan  Edwards,  philosopher 
and  theologian;  Benjamin  Franklin,  man  of  the 
world ;  George  Washington,  father  of  his  country ; 
[70] 


Alexander  Hamilton,  statesman  and  political  phi-    The 
losopher ;  Thomas  Jefferson,  leader  of  the  people ; 

John  Marshall,  jurist ;    Daniel  Webster,   orator  and  the 

....  T  •       i  11   Intellectual 

and  publicist;    Abraham  Lincoln,  whom  Lowell    _., 

Life 
significantly  called  "  the  first  American  " ;    Ralph 

Waldo  Emerson,  teacher  of  religion  and  morals; 
and  Willard  Gibbs,  mathematician  and  physicist. 
Perhaps  two  other  names  should  be  added : 
Francis  Parkman,  historian,  and  WTilliam  Dwight 
Whitney,  philologist.  Of  these  ten,  Washington, 
Hamilton,  Jefferson,  Marshall,  Webster,  and 
Lincoln  were  the  products  of  the  nation's  im 
mediate  needs,  and  take  rank  with  the  world's 
publicists  and  statesmen ;  while  Edwards,  Frank 
lin,  Emerson,  and  Gibbs  —  as  well  as  Parkman 
and  Whitney  —  were  all  of  the  reflective  type  of 
mind,  and  are  to  be  classed  with  the  world's  men 
of  letters,  philosophers,  and  men  of  science. 

The  reflective  product  of  America,  outside  of  Art  and 

„        ,..."  architecture 

the  held  or  political  science,  is  thus  tar,  not  un 
naturally,  small.  In  the  fine  arts,  too,  with  the  . 
noteworthy  exception  of  architecture,  the  Ameri 
can  contributions  must  be  admitted  to  be  either 
frankly  imitative  or  clearly  to  fall  short  of  the 
[71] 


The  highest  excellence.     The  sculpture  of  Saint  Gau- 

American     dens  and  the  stained  glass  of  La  Farge,  both  of 

and  the         which   are   of  marked   distinction,   stand   out   as 

Intellectual  ..  T*7-.i         i  .. 

noteworthy  exceptions.     With  architecture,  how- 
i jijjfi 

ever,  the  case  is  different.    Richardson,  Hunt,  and 

McKim  have  led  the  way  to  an  important  art 
movement  in  architecture,  and  the  past  generation 
has  witnessed  a  remarkable  outburst  of  originality 
and  inventiveness,  particularly  in  the  interweav 
ing  of  design  with  problems  of  engineering  and 
construction,  which  is  evidence  of  real  power  and 
of  the  possession  of  a  genuinely  artistic  imagina 
tion. 

Art  feeds  on  things  artistic.  Much  may  there 
fore  be  expected  from  the  significant  collections 
of  paintings,  sculpture,  and  other  art  cbjects  that 
are  now  being  rapidly  brought  together  in  the 
great  museums  of  New  York,  Boston,  and  Chi 
cago,  and  to  a  lesser  degree  elsewhere,  as  well  as 
from  the  important  collections  of  private  individ 
uals  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 

Scientific         /  Scientific  inquiry  and  the  application  of  scien- 
u  tific   discovery  to   industry   and   art   are   eagerly 
pursued   in  America  and  with  marked  success. 
[72] 


The   universities  have   been   most  hospitable  to    The 

the  new  scientific  movement,  and.  the  government    American 

"has   fostered   it   generously   and   in   many  ways.   ana  tlle 

.n          .  .       Intellectual 
For  almost  every  department  of  scientific  activity 

Jjije 

the  United  States  can  to-day  furnish  representa 
tives  whose  work  is  everywhere  recognized  as 
contributing  to  scientific  advance  and  whose 
distinction  is  equal  to  that  of  their  fellow-workers 
in  other  countries. 

De  Tocqueville  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  Philosophy 

and  the 
very  structure  of  a  democratic  society  is  unsuited   theoretical 

to  meditation  and  inimical  to  it.  This  is  certainly  sciences 
true  if  one's  observation  or  attention  be  confined 
to  a  democratic  society  in  the  making;  for  then 
the  pressure  and  struggle  for  power  and  for  gain, 
the  unending  tumult  which  accompanies  the  task 
of  economic  and  political  organization,  and  the 
practical  interpretation  of  underlying  formulas 
and  principles,  as  well  as  the  novelty  of  the  con 
ditions  of  life,  all  unite  to  compel  the  attention 
outward,  and  to  make  reflection  an  impossible 
luxury.  Only  a  Hegel  could  pursue  the  course 
of  his  abstruse  meditations  uninterrupted,  with 
the  guns  of  Jena  sounding  in  his  ears.  But  after 
[73] 


The  a  democratic  state  of  society  has  established  itself, 

American     anc[  traditions  have  become  fixed,  there  seems  no 

reason  to  believe  that  reflection  and  meditation 

Intellectual      ..  ,. 

will  not  then  take  and  hold  the  commanding  place 
Life 

which  they  have  always  held  among  civilized  men. 

Certainly  the  history  of  the  American  universities 
justifies  this  expectation.  Philosophy  is  now, 
and  for  some  time  past  has  been,  one  of  the 
favorite  studies  at  the  American  universities  and 
colleges,  and  the  reputation  and  productive  ac 
tivity  of  the  teachers  of  philosophy  at  Columbia, 
1  Harvard,  and  California  Universities,  in  particu 
lar,  has  drawn  general  attention  to  them  as  cen 
tres  of  reflective  studies.  Likewise  the  study  of 
the  theoretical  aspects  of  economics,  law,  mathe 
matics,  physics,  biology,  and  other  departments 
of  science  is  pursued  by  large  numbers  of  students 
in  America,  and  in  time  these  studies  must  bear 
fruit.  Epoch-making  discoveries  in  science  or 
contributions  to  philosophy  of  high  importance 
are  not  made  with  great  frequency,  however. 
All  Greece  only  produced  one  Plato  and  one 
Aristotle,  and  it  was  a  far  cry  even  from  Descartes 
and  Newton  to  Laplace. 

[74] 


The   influence   and   importance   of  meditation    The 
and  of  reflective  studies  will  increase  in  the  United   American 

States  as  the  people  generally  learn  to  distinguish   a 

,  ,.  .       ,  Intellectual 

between  public  noise  and  public  service,  between 

Life 
passing    popularity    and    permanent    worth.     It 

takes  some  time  for  the  masses  in  a  democracy  Place  of  re- 
to  learn  this  lesson.  They  are  conscious  of  their  American  life 
power,  they  are  not  trained  to  reflection,  they  feel  -JA 
the  pressure  of  immediate  necessities,  and  they 
are  quick  to  follow  the  leader  who,  having  won 
their  sympathy  by  his  personality  or  by  his  acts, 
promises  them  the  most.  Popularity  is,  there 
fore,  the  path  to  immediate  power,  but  it  is  a 
path  strewn  with  dangers  both  to  the  leader  and 
to  the  led.  The  believer  in  democracy  cannot  ac 
cept  temporary  popularity  as  a  test  of  greatness 
in  a  leader;  he  must  look  rather  to  those  basic 
principles  on  which  the  nation's  institutions  rest, 
and  to  their  orderly  and  equitable  development 
and  application.  Writing  of  Alexander  Hamilton, 
his  most  recent  biographer,  with  sure  insight,  has 
said :  "  A  man  who  never  disagrees  with  his  coun 
trymen,  and  who  shrinks  from  unpopularity  as 
the  worst  of  all  evils,  can  never  have  a  share  in 
[75] 


The  moulding  the  traditions  of  a  virile  race,  though 

American     for  a  time  he  mav  make  its  fashions."  1     In  like 

spirit  a  contemporary  statesman,  speaking  from 

Intellectual  .,  ,     „  ,  ,.  . 

the  vantage  ground  01  a  unique  public  service  in 

JL/vj  0 

a  most  difficult  post,  has  written :  "  Occasions  do 
occur,  which  in  these  democratic  days  are  becom 
ing  more,  rather  than  less  frequent,  when  the  best 
service  a  government  official  can  render  to  his 
country  is  to  place  himself  in  opposition  to  the 
public  view.  Indeed,  if  he  feels  certain  that  he 
is  right,  it  is  his  bounden  duty  to  do  so,  especially 
in  respect  to  questions  as  to  which  public  opinion 
is  ill  informed."  2  A  majority  carries  no  moral 
^weight  because  it  is  a  majority,  although  it  may, 
if  it  chooses,  enforce  its  views  and  preferences 
Popularity  by  brute  force.  A  majority  carries  moral  weight 

versus  worth  •>          ••          ••    •        •   i  .         A      i  i  .  i  • 

only  when  it  is  right.  A  democracy  learns  this 
invaluable  lesson  only  when  it  has  first  learned 
to  give  weight  to  the  reflective  habit  of  mind. 
Educational  L  The  vast  and  unremitting  educational  activity 
in  the  United  States,  the  constant  and  generous 
support  of  literary  and  scientific  undertakings 

1  Oliver,  Alexander  Hamilton,  p.  436. 

2  Earl  of  Cromer,  Modern  Egypt,  1 : 438. 

[76] 


of  every  kind,  and  the  increasing  deference  paid    The 

to  the  opinions  of  those  who  speak  with  the  au-   American 

thority  of   knowledge,  are  all   evidence's  that  at   and  tne 

,      ,     ,    ..  Intellectual 

bottom  the  American  people  do  believe  that  re-    . 

Life 
flection  is  a  better  guide  for  life  than  appetite. 

The  demagogue  is  constantly  telling  those  who 
will  listen  to  him  that  the  voice  of  the  people  is 
the  voice  of  God,  and  that  it  is  better  to  trust  the 
instincts  and  common-sense  of  the  masses  to 
solve  political  and  economic  problems  than  to 
follow  the  guidance  of  the  expert  or  to  study  the 
experience  of  other  nations.  Nevertheless,  he 
sends  his  own  children  to  school  to  learn  the  rudi 
ments  of  the  world's  knowledge,  and  those  who 
applaud  his  false  teaching  do  the  same.  The 
demagogue  is  a  by-product  of  democracy,  not  its 
fruit. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  surer  indication  of  the  Higher  educa- 
progress  of  a  modern  people  toward  conscious 
dependence  upon  reflection  instead  of  impulse, 
than  the  character  and  influence  of  a  nation's 
universities.  If  the  universities  stand  vis-a-vis 
to  the  nation ;  if  they  serve  it  and  represent  it  in 
all  possible  ways;  if  their  scholars  are  mature, 
[77] 


The  well-trained,  and  devoted  to  the  advancement  of 

American     knowledge;    if  their  students   are   drawn   freely 

and  widely  from  all  classes  in  the  community; 

Intellectual        ,  .„  .     '        „  „  ,  ,.  . 

and  it  the  professions  ot  law,  medicine,  divinity, 
Life 

teaching,   and   engineering   are   largely  recruited 

from  men  trained  in  the  universities, — then  the 
nation  is  assuredly  on  the  upward  path,  away 
from  government  and  life  by  impulse  and  appetite, 
toward  government  and  life  by  reflection  and 
experience.  That  this  is  true  of  the  United  States 
cannot  be  doubted. 

The  history  of  the  American  universities  is 
unique  and  significant.  They  are,  perhaps,  a 
dozen  or  fifteen  in  number,  and  they  are,  without 
exception,  young  and  new.  They  are  a  develop 
ment,  under  the  guidance  and  stimulus  of  German 
example,  out  of  the  American  college,  which,  in 
turn,  was  the  New  World's  adaptation  and  devel 
opment  of  the  English  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
as  those  were  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries.  In  Europe  the  usual  divisions  of  the 
formal  educational  process  are  the  elementary, 
the  secondary,  and  the  higher,  or  university  stage. 
In  America  the  corresponding  divisions  consist 
[78] 


of  four  stages,  instead  of  three.     These  four  are    The 

the  elementary  school,  the  secondary  school,  the  American 

college,  and  the  university.     In  America  the  ele-  and  ™e 

mentary  school  and  the  secondary  school  meet    . 

Lije 
each  other  end  to  end,  instead  of  overlapping  as 

is  usually  the  case  in  European  countries.  The 
American  college  in  turn  takes  about  two  years 
of  the  work  of  the  secondary  school  (Gymnasium, 
Real-Schule)  as  that  institution  is  organized  in 
Germany,  for  instance.  As  a  result,  the  American 
secondary  school  has  normally  a  four-year  course 
and  the  college  has  normally  one  of  equal  length. 

The  college  has  been,  is,  and  —  it  is  greatly  Tlie  American 

college 
to  be  hoped  —  will  continue  to  be,  the  central 

point  and  the  foundation  of  higher  education  in 
America.  The  American  college  is  the  efficient 
representative  of  the  tradition  of  liberal  learning 
which  took  its  rise  early  in  the  middle  ages  in  the 
Faculty  of  Arts  in  the  University  of  Paris,  and 
which,  handed  on  through  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
reached  America  in  colonial  days.  Of  nominal 
colleges  there  are  in  the  United  States  several 
hundred,  but  the  number  of  effective  institutions 
which  truly  deserve  and  worthily  bear  the  name 
[79] 


The  is  perhaps  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and  twenty. 

American     Scattered  widely  over  the  country,  found  in  every 
and  the          State,,  these  colleges  reach  with  their  instruction 

and  their  influence  thousands  of  American  youths 
Life 

each  year,  and  send  them  into  the  world  to  take 

up  their  life-work  with  a  new  and  more  elevated 
outlook,  and  with  minds  and  characters  marked 
with  the  personal  influence  of  devoted  and  schol 
arly  teachers.  In  the  college  course  the  subjects 
usually  taught  are  Greek  and  Latin,  English, 
French,  and  German;  history,  economics,  and 
philosophy ;  mathematics,  physics,  chemistry,  and 
biology.  The  college  confers  upon  its  graduates 
the  degree  of  bachelor,  and  the  young  alumnus 
goes,  at  twenty-one  to  twenty-three  years  of  age, 
either  into  the  practical  work  of  life,  or  to  a  uni 
versity  to  pursue  more  advanced  or  professional 
studies. 

The  popularity  of  the  college  in  America,  the 
extreme  sacrifices  made  by  many  parents  to  give 
their  children  the  advantage  of  a  college  education, 
the  fact  that  the  college  students  come  literally 
from  every  class  in  the  community,  the  influence 
of  college  traditions  and  ideals  and  of  college 
[80] 


association  in  after  life,  all  testify  to  the  strong    The 
hold  which  scholarship  and  the  life  of  -reflection  American 

have  upon  the  imagination  of  the  American  people.    ( 

„  ,     ,  Intellectual 

As  the  number  of  men  and  women  who  have  en- 

Life 
joyed  the  privilege  of  college  residence  and  college 

study  increases,  it  will  furnish  the  nation  with  a 
rapidly  growing  and  influential  body  of  citizen 
ship,  which  will  have  a  respect  for  the  results  of 
reflection  and  a  confidence  in  them.  These  men 
and  women  will  be  a  steadying  influence  of  almost 
incalculable  value,  as  the  nation  confronts  its 
numerous  and  difficult  problems  of  internal 
development  and  welfare.  With  his  caustic  wit, 
Lord  Palmerston  once  said  that  if  a  little  learn 
ing  is  a  dangerous  thing,  no  learning  at  all  is 
more  dangerous  still.  To  open  the  way  to  a  cer 
tain  amount  of  liberal  learning  for  large  numbers 
of  American  youths  is  the  self-imposed  and,  on 
the  whole,  the  successfully  executed  task  of  the 
American  college. 

While  the  American  college  goes  back  for  its  The  American 
.    .  universities 

origin  to  the  nrst  halt  ot  the  seventeenth  century, 

the  American  university  has  come  into  existence 

during  the  past  forty  years.     Here  again,  as  in  the 

[81] 


The  case  of  the  college,  the  thing  must  be  distinguished 

American     from  the  name.     Since  in  the  United  States  an 

educational  institution  may  be  either  established 

Intellectual  .       .      ,  ,  „  „    , 

and  maintained  by  the  government  of  one  of  the 

Life 

States  or  cities,  or  exist,  with  a  general  or  a  spe 
cial  charter,  without  direct  government  support  or 
control,  many  institutions  have  taken  the  name 
University  without  any  proper  warrant  what 
ever.  Therefore,  the  number  of  nominal  Ameri 
can  universities  is  very  large.  The  real  univer 
sities,  however,  are  easily  recognized  in  Europe 
and  America  alike,  and  it  is  those  only  that  are 
properly  spoken  of  as  the  American  universities. 
The  American  universities  are  organized  largely 
upon  the  German  model.  They  have,  however, 
adapted  that  model  to  the  requirements  of  Ameri 
can  life  and  to  American  administrative  habits. 
With  but  insignificant  exceptions,  these  univer 
sities  have  grown  up  out  of  colleges,  and  they 
retain  colleges  as  part  of  their  organization  and 
work.  The  name  University  is  consequently 
used  in  America  in  a  twofold  sense.  It  is  used 
to  designate  either  the  whole  educational  activity 
of  an  institution  properly  called  a  university, 
[82] 


or  it  is  used  to  designate  the  advanced,  research,    The 
and  professional  work  of  such  an  institution,  as  American 

distinguished  from  the  collegiate  or  undergraduate   an      ie 

Intellectual 
instruction,    which    it    also    gives.     Ihis    uncer-   ^ 

tainty  of  nomenclature  makes  a  real  difficulty, 
both  for  foreigners  who  wish  to  understand  and 
estimate  the  American  educational  system,  and 
for  Americans  themselves.  It  makes  clear  think 
ing  about  colleges  and  universities  and  their 
work,  extremely  difficult,  and  it  is  only  proper  to 
say  that  even  intelligent  Americans  are  them 
selves  quite  often  confused  by  this  confusion  of 
names  and  things. 

To  the  universities  fall,  in  chief  part,  the  tasks 

f 
of    promoting    research    and    publication    in    all 

departments  of  letters  and  of  science,  of  training 
men  and  women  for  the  work  of  scientific  investi 
gation,  of  preparing  teachers  for  the  higher  posts, 
and  of  equipping  the  future  lawyers,  physicians, 
engineers,  and  architects  for  their  professional 
careers.  Ministers  of  religion,  for  reasons  pe 
culiar  to  American  social  and  political  history, 
have  thus  far  been  trained  chiefly  apart  from  the 
universities  in  seminaries  maintained  by  the 
[83] 


The  several  religious  bodies.     The  time   is  likely  to 

American     come,  however,  when  the  ministry  will  be  relieved 

from  this  limitation  and  disadvantage,  and  when 

Intellectual     ,.    ,       ,.  ,       .        ...         .„    .  ,  ...      . 

all  the  chiet  universities  will  either  maintain  theo- 
Life 

logical    faculties    or    ally  theological   seminaries 

with  themselves. 

The  universities,  too,  render  to  the  community, 
and  often  to  the  government  as  well,  expert  service 
of  the  highest  and  most  useful  kind,  and  they  are 
fertile  in  devising  both  methods  of  extending  their 
influence  and  ways  and  means  of  bringing  a  gen 
eral  knowledge  of  topics  in  literature,  science,  and 
art,  to  large  numbers  of  the  adult  population. 

The  moral  and  intellectual  influence  of  the 
universities,  and  of  their  representative  scholars, 
is  very  great,  and  the  universities  themselves  are 
generously,  even  munificently,  supported.  Some 
universities,  especially  in  the  Western  States,  are 
supported  mainly  by  public  tax-,  others,  chiefly 
in  the  Eastern  States,  are  supported  by  endow 
ments  and  by  the  benefactions  of  individuals. 
The  average  of  scholarship  in  American  university 
teachers  is  very  high,  and  the&e£al  for  research 
produces  annually  hundreds  of  publications  of 
[84] 


various  sorts,  not  a  few  of  which  are  of  more  than   The 
average  merit.  American 

While  the  American  colleges  were  originally,   a 

.    '          .      Intellectual 
and  for  the  most  part  continue  to  be,  situated  in 

Life 
villages,  towns,   or  small  cities,  the   universities 

flourish  most  vigorously  in  the  larger  centres 
of  publication.  The  reason  for  this  is  plain, 
and  Paris,  Berlin,  and  Copenhagen  are  witnesses 
of  its  cogency.  As  Cardinal  Newman  once 
pointed  out,  a  large  city,  particularly  a  metropoli 
tan  city,  is  peculiarly  fitted  to  be  the  seat  of  a 
university.  Thither  are  drawn,  by  an  irresistible 
force,  those  personalities  and  those  influences 
which,  quite  as  much  as  direct  formal  instruction, 
stimulate  and  cultivate  the  mind  of  the  student 
who  has  passed  through  the  earlier  stages  of  his 
educational  career.  There  are  to  be  found  the 
great  collections  of  books  and  of  art,  there  are  the 
opportunities  to  see  the  best  dramas  and  to  hear 
the  best  music.  There,  either  as  residents  or  as 
occasional  visitors,  are  to  be  seen  and  heard  the 
men  who  are  leaders  in  the  world's  life  and 
thought,  and  who  most  powerfully  direct  and 
influence  public  opinion.  This  explains  why 
[85] 


The  the  most  vigorous  and  productive  American  uni- 

Amencan     versity  life   is  to  be   found   in   New   York   and 

Chicago,  and  in  the  suburbs  of  Boston  and  San 

Intellectual  ^ 

Jb  rancisco. 
Life 

Under  modern   conditions   of   life   and   labor, 

The  urban        the  population  of  the  United  States  is  being  drawn 

movement  in  . 

America  U  with  increasing  rapidity  into  cities,  which  the 
United  States  census  officially  interprets  as  com 
munities  having  a  population  of  8000  or  more. 
This  means  not  only  that  university  life,  but  all 
American  activity,  is  becoming  more  and  more 
urban  in  character.  When  the  first  United  States 
census  was  taken  in  1790  only  about  130,000 
persons,  or  3.3  per  cent  of  the  whole  population, 
dwelt  in  places  having  8000  or  more  inhabitants, 
and  there  were  only  six  such  places  in  the  country. 
When  the  twelfth  census  was  taken  in  1900, 
25,000,000  persons,  or  over  33  per  cent  of  the 
population,  dwelt  in  places  having  8000  or  more 
inhabitants,  and  there  were  no  fewer  than  545 
such  places.  There  were  at  that  time  38  cities 
having  100,000  or  more  inhabitants  each.  Free 
mail  delivery  in  rural  districts,  the  rapid  extension 
of  the  farm  telephone  system,  and  the  constant 
[86] 


improvement  of  the  roads,  all  tend  to  make  farm   The 
and  village  life  more  agreeable  and  leas  isolated ;  American 

but  still  the  rapid  drift  toward  the  cities  goes  on.   and  the 

~     .      ,  ,     .,  .  Intellectual 

Curiously  enough,  this  remarkable  urban  con- 

Life 
centration  and  growth  has  taken  place  without 

deflecting  the  centre  of  the  country's  population 
appreciably  from  the  parallel  of  latitude  on  which 
it  was  when  the  first  census  was  taken.  At  that 
time  the  centre  of  population  was  23  miles  east 
of  Baltimore,  and  just  north  of  the  39th  parallel 
of  latitude.  From  that  39th  parallel  —  about 
the  latitude  of  Lisbon  or  Palermo  —  the  centre 
of  population  has  never  moved  more  than  a  few 
miles  in  either  direction,  although  it  has  travelled 
about  520  miles  west,  and  in  1900  was  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  the  town  of  Columbus, 
Indiana.  The  nation  has  become  much  more 
urban  and  much  more  western  in  the  century  and 
more  that  has  passed,  but  the  population  of 
75,500,000  in  1900  was  distributed  on  either  side 
of  the  39th  parallel  just  as  was  the  population  of 
4,000,000  in  1790. 

These  developments  have  powerfully  affected 
the  nation's  history,  and  they  have  put  a  stamp 
[87] 


The  upon   its  culture   and   upon   its   public   opinion. 

American  ,   Whatever  else  one  sees  of  the  United  States,  if  he 

and  me          jg  to  stu(jy  fts  dominant  and  its  representative 

Intellectual     ,  ...      .„  ,     .        , 

characteristics,  if  he  is  to  know  its  culture,  he  must 
Life 

know  the  greatest  of  its  cities,  New  York,  and  he 

must  know  the  West. 
New  York  as        The    highest    culture  —  letters,    art,    science, 

the  national  .   ,  ~ 

metropolis         social     refinement  —  rests     upon     an     economic 

basis,  as  does  life  itself.  Intellectual  vigor  and 
dominance  tread  hard  upon  the  heels  of  wealth 
and  commercial  supremacy.  This  was  true  in 
the  ancient  world  and  in  the  middle  ages,  and  it 
is  true  still.  The  knowledge  of  how  to  use  wealth 
follows,  but  does  not  precede,  the  possession  of 
wealth  itself.  New  York  is  the  intellectual  and 
the  social  capital  of  the  United  States,  as  it  is 
the  financial  centre  of  the  nation.  Its  immense 
masses  of  foreign-born  citizens  have  not  pre 
vented  a  certain  well-marked  continuity  in  the 
history  of  New  York  ever  since  its  commercial 
leadership  was  made  secure  by  the  opening  of  the 
Erie  Canal  and  by  the  building  of  railroads. 

There  is  a  superficial  generalization  quite  com 
mon  to  observers  of  America  from  abroad,  that 
[88] 


Washington  is  the  political  capital,   New  York   The 

the  commercial  capital,  and  Boston  the  intellec-  American 

tual  leader  of  American  life.     The  small  amount  a 

of    truth   which    underlies   this   characterization 

Lije 

sometimes  conceals  its  essential  falsity.  Wash 
ington  is  the  seat  of  government,  but  it  is  far  from 
being  a  capital  city  as  are  London,  Paris,  and 
Berlin.  Each  year,  however,  it  is  taking  on  more 
and  more  of  the  attributes  of  a  real  capital,  and  it 
may  well  be  that  in  time  it  will  be  a  metropolis 
as  well  as  the  seat  of  government.  Boston  was 
the  intellectual  leader  of  America  while  and  so 
long  as  its  commercial  prosperity  was  well  marked 
and  until  the  opening  up  of  the  great  Western 
States  to  settlement  completely  altered  the  na 
tion's  centre  of  gravity,  political  and  intellectual 
alike.  Since  the  Civil  War  (1861-65)  the  intel 
lectual  eminence  of  Boston  has  declined  both 
relatively  and  absolutely. 

ThaT^f  New  York,  on  the  contrary,  has  steadily 
and  rapidly  increased.  The  membership  of  the 
Century,  the  Players,  and  the  Authors'  Clubs 
includes  an  astonishingly  large  proportion  of  the 
representative  directive  force  and  capacity  of  the 
[89] 


The  nation  in  every  part  of  the  field  of  culture.     Men 

American     of  letters,  artists,  scientific  investigators,  scholars 

of  every  type,  find  themselves  drawn  in  increasing 

Intellectual  XT       A7    , 

numbers  to  JNew  York,  to  share  its  cosmopolitan 

Life 

and  urbane  intellectual  life,  and  to  feel  the  stim 
ulus  of  its  friendly  criticism.  The  opportunities 
which  New  York  offers  to  men  of  capacity  are 
literally  boundless.  It  possesses,  at  Columbia 
University,  one  of  the  world's  greatest  companies 
of  scholars,  and,  at  its  museums  of  Art  and  of 
Natural  History,  two  extraordinary  and  increas 
ingly  valuable  collections  of  art  and  science.  It 
has  been  for  many  years  a  musical  centre  of  the 
first  rank.  It  is  catholic  in  its  tastes,  warm  in  its 
appreciation  of  excellence,  and  generous  almost 
to  a  fault.  Contrary  to  a  widespread  impression, 
New  York  offers,  in  its  citizenship,  numerous  in 
stances  of  men  who  have  turned  their  backs  upon 
the  more  gainful  occupations  to  which  they  have 
been  solicited,  in  order  to  devote  themselves  to 
the  career  in  education,  in  letters,  in  art,  or  in 
science,  which  most  strongly  appealed  to  them. 

New  York  is  so  large  and  so  many-sided  and 
its  intellectual  activity  is  so  widely  diffused,  that 
[90] 


the  passing  stranger  is  less  strongly  impressed  by   The 

it  than  by  the   lesser  but    more   compactly   or-   American 

ganized  intellectual  life  of  a  smaller  place.     The   and  the 

,  .  ,  Intellectual 

vulgar   and   the    bizarre    happenings    which    are 

J^zfe 
sometimes  blazoned  abroad   as  characteristic  of 

New  York,  are  as  infrequent  as  they  are  dis 
agreeable,  and  they  are  no  true  index  of  the 
polished,  refined,  and  highly  intellectual  social 
life  of  which  New  York  is  able  to  exhibit  so  much. 

The  West  is  a  vague  term  which  is  only  partly  The  West 
geographical,  partly  political,  and  partly  social,  in 
its  significance.  It  includes,  generally  speaking, 
the  population  living  in  Ohio,  and  the  States 
west  thereof  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  extending 
far  enough  south  to  include  Missouri,  Kansas, 
and  Colorado.  In  the  hands  of  this  population 
lies  the  control  of  the  political  policy  of  the  United 
States.  When  combined  with  the  power  and 
influence  of  New  York,  the  West  must  always 
be  irresistible. 

The  West  is  very  apt  to  exaggerate  the  differ 
ences  between  itself  and  the  population  of  the 
Eastern  States.     These  differences  are,  in  reality, 
more  largely  in  modes  of  expression  than  in  modes 
[91] 


The         .^of  thought.     The  West  is  freer  from  the  wish  to 
American     conform  to  conventions  than  the  East,  and  its 

camaraderie  is  that  of  a  population  which  has 
Intellectual      ...    ,         .     .  ,.  .  .          .  . 

still  about  it  the  traditions  of  a  pioneering  period. 

The  Western  people  are  proud,  intensely  earnest, 
law-abiding,  and  ambitious  in  the  highest  degree 
for  their  sons  and  daughters.  They  are  great 
readers  of  the  best  books  and  of  the  periodical 
literature  of  the  day.  They  have  developed,  and 
are  continually  developing,  writers  and  scholars 
as  excellent  as  any  in  the  land.  They  are  well 
informed  as  to  men  and  things  abroad  and  inde 
pendent  in  their  judgments  of  them.  The  best 
critical  literary  newspaper  in  the  country,  The 
Dial,  is  published  in  Chicago,  and  one  of  the  best- 
edited  weekly  journals,  The  Argonaut,  is  published 
Jpk^Xin  San  Francisco.  Among  the  universities  in  the 
West  are  some  of  the  best  and  most  active  in 
America. 

To  know  New  York,  therefore,  and  to  compre- 
— ^    hend  the  spirit  of  the  West,  are  indispensable  to 
an  understanding  of  American   civilization   and 
American  culture. 

The  South  The  South,  once  politically  dominant   in  the 

[92] 


United  States,  had  led  a  life  apart  since  the  close    The 

of  the  Civil  War,  partly  because  of  the  war  and  its  American 

immediate  political  and  economic  results,  partly  c 

.  ,  Intellectual 

because  ot  the  stupendous  social  problem  it  has    _  , 

Life 
had  to  face  in  the  negro  question.     The  economic 

results  of  the  Civil  War  are  rapidly  giving  way  to 
a  new  industrial  order,  and  in  time  the  political 
results  will,  doubtless,  similarly  disappear.  Only 
faith,  patience,  and  courage  can  ever  solve  the 
negro  question,  and  to  that  the  South  is  now 
bravely  addressing  itself.  The  South  is  intensely 
American,  and  its  social  life  reflects  a  charm  and  . ;  . 
a  grace  that  are  all  its  own.  The  time  will  come 
when  the  South,  too,  will  bear  its  full  share  in  the 
upbuilding  of  the  intellectual  life  in  America. 

The  dwellers  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  The  Pacific 
the  States  of  the  Pacific  slope  have  more  char 
acteristics  in  common  with  the  Eastern  than  with 
the  Western  States.  So  solid  is  their  civilization, 
so  keen  their  intellectual  activity,  and  so  substan 
tial  their  achievements  in  letters,  in  science,  and 
in  art,  that  it  is  hard  to  believe  how  young  these 
States  are  in  years. 

The  Americans  are  now  the  most  considerable 
[93] 


The  body  of  English-speaking  people   in  the  world. 

American     Despite  their  numbers  and  their  wide  geographi- 

ana  me         caj  distribution,  their  English  speech  is  more  nearly 

Intellectual  .  .,      .  ,    ,  . 

uniform  than  that  01  the  inhabitants  o*  England 
Life 

itself.     No  differences  of    intonation,  accent,  or 

The  English     vocabulary  in  the  United  States  are  so  great  as 
America  those  between  the  Yorkshireman  and  the  Cornish- 

man,  or  between  the  dwellers  in  Westmoreland 
and  those  in  Devon.  Many  so-called  American 
isms  are  only  survivals  of  sixteenth  and  seven 
teenth  century  English  usages  which  have  disap 
peared  in  the  mother  country.  The  exaggerated 
drawl  of  many  Englishmen  is  as  far  from  being 
good  English  as  is  the  nasal  twang  of  the  uncul 
tivated  American.  The  purity  of  the  language 
must  rest  with  the  educated  classes  who  use  the 
English  speech  and  with  the  makers  of  its  litera 
ture,  and  it  is  as  safe  on  one  side  of  the  Atlantic 
as  on  the  other.  The  fact  is  not  without  signifi 
cance  that  until  the  appearance  of  the  monumen 
tal  dictionary  now  passing  through  the  Oxford 
University  Press,  the  best  modern  dictionaries  of 
the  English  language  were  the  work  of  American 
scholars. 

[94] 


The  richest  and  most  elegant  modern  prose  is   The 
that  of  the  French  academicians  and  of  the  Eng-  American 

lish  scholars  trained  under  the  classical  traditions  and  tjle 

Intellectual 
of  Oxford  and  of  Cambridge.     Few  Americans 

write  so  well  as  either  of  these,  and  if  the  classical 
tradition  further  weakens  in  the  American  colleges 
and  universities,  or  perishes  altogether,  there  will 
be  fewer  still  in  years  to  come.  Only  occasionally 
is  an  American  book  of  even  exceptional  scholar 
ship  really  well  written.  When  it  is  both  of 
genuine  scholarship  and  well  written,  it  finds 
readers  and  influences  opinion  very  quickly,  in 
Europe  as  well  as  in  America. 

The  American  literary  tradition  centres  largely  American 

literature 
about  New  York  and  Boston.     Irving,   Cooper, 

Bryant,  Poe,  Curtis,  and  Stedman  belong  to  New 
York.  Whittier,  Longfellow,  Hawthorne,  Emer 
son,  Holmes,  and  Lowell  belong  to  Boston.  Whit 
man  stands  outside  both,  as  do  the  few  names  that 
one  remembers  from  the  South,  the  West,  and  the 
Pacific  slope.  Of  these  Poe  was  the  first  to  win  a 
European  reputation,  and  Poe  and  Whitman  are 
the  most  read  and  the  most  admired  in  other 
countries.  These  writers,  and  others  less  cele- 
[95] 


The  brated,  have  made  a  very  respectable  contribu- 

American     tion  to  the   literature   of  the   English   language 

and  the         during  the  nineteenth  century. 

Intellectual       ^  .,  . 

J^nougn  has  been  said,  perhaps,  to  justify,  m 

.L/Z76/ 

considerable  measure,  the  predictions  of  David 
Ramsay.  If  the  intellectual  history  of  America 
is  not  yet  illustrious,  it  is  dignified,  serious,  and 
significant.  Neither  the  political  contests  nor 
the  economic  struggles  of  a  new  people  in  a  new 
land  have  checked  the  tendency  inborn  in  man  to 
express  his  nature,  his  aspirations,  and  his  reflec 
tions,  in  the  forms  of  science,  of  letters,  and  of  art. 
The  American's  devotion  to  education,  and  his 
.zeal  and  generosity  in  its  behalf,  are  quite  without 
precedent.  The  intellectual  life  is  familiar  in 
America,  and  its  power  and  influence  will  steadily 
increase. 

The  typical          Who  is  this  American  who,  whatever  his  limi 
tations  and  his  faults,  has  so  many  excellent  traits 
and  so  fine  a  nature  ?  |  He  is  not  the  man  who, 
.suddenly  grown   rich,   disports  himself   vulgarly 
in  the  public  gaze ;   he  is  not  the  boastful  Philis 
tine,  who  is  ignorant  of  the  world's  civilization, 
[96] 


and  despises  what  he  not  does  not  know;    he  is   The 

not  the  decadent  of  the  large  cities  who  wastes  American 

his  patrimony  and  his  life  in  excess  and  frivolity. 

Intellectual 
All  these  exist  m  America,  but  their  notoriety  is 

unfortunately  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  num 
bers.  /  The  typical  American  is  he  who,  whether 
rich  or  poor,  whether  dwelling  in  the  North,  South, 
East,  or  West,  whether  scholar,  professional  man, 
merchant,  manufacturer,  farmer,  or  skilled  worker 
for  wages,  lives  the  life  of  a  good  citizen  and  a 
good  neighbor;  who  believes  loyally  and  with  all 
his  heart  in  his  country's  institutions,  and  in  the 
underlying  principles  on  which  these  institutions 
are  built;  who  directs  both  his  private  and  his 
public  life  by  sound  principles;  who  cherishes 
high  ideals;  and  who  aims  to  train  his  children 
for  a  useful  life  and  for  their  country's  service. 
These,  and  not  the  accidental  and  unusual  types, 
are  the  Americans  of  whom  I  speak.  Fortunately, 
there  are  many  millions  of  them  in  the  United 
States. 


[971 


INDEX 


Achievements,  First-class,  not 
numerous,  70. 

American,  The,  as  a  political 
type,  3-31 ;  conservative,  23. 

American,  The,  and  the  intel 
lectual  life,  07-97. 

American,  The,  apart  from  his 
government,  35-63 ;  in  the 
domain  of  liberty,  35-37;  his 
self-reliance,  37-38;  his  op 
portunities,  39;  attitude  of, 
toward  money,  39-41 ;  his 
emotional  temperament,  41- 
43;  a  Christian  people,  44- 
46;  religious  freedom,  47-48; 
high  standards  of  business 
honor,  49-51 ;  in  business, 
51-52;  as  a  citizen  of  the 
world,  55-57 ;  his  law-abiding 
spirit,  60-62;  the  typical, 
86-97. 

American  people,  Variety  in 
the,  6. 

American  type,  Unity  of  the, 
3,6. 

Americans,  The  ten  or  twelve 
greatest,  70-71. 

Anglo-Saxon  impulse,  Persist 
ence  of  the,  3-6;  its  source 
and  development,  4;  its  ex 
pression  in  America,  5-6,  24; 
57. 

Appropriations,  Congressional, 
Unifying  effect  of,  17. 

Argonaut,  The,  92. 

Aristotle,  74. 

Art  and  architecture,  71-72. 


Bagehot,  Walter,  on  American 
sovereignty,  19. 

Boston,  54 ;  not  the  intellectual 
leader,  89. 

Brewer,  David  Josiah,  on  the 
religious  character  of  the 
American  people,  45-46. 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  95. 

Burgess,  Prof.  J.  W.,  on  indi 
vidual  liberty,  18. 

Business,  The  conduct  of,  51- 
52. 

Business  honor,  High  standards 
of,  49-51. 

Calvin,  John,  Influence  of,  in 
America,  69. 

Christianity  of  the  American 
people,  44-47. 

Church,  No  established,  46,  48. 

Cleveland,  Grover,  13 ;  and  the 
Chicago  outbreak  in  1894, 60. 

College,  The  American,  79-81. 

Columbia  University,  74,  90. 

Columbus,  45. 

Congress,  Powers  of,  deter 
mined  by  the  courts,  28. 

Conservatism  of  the  American 
people,  23. 

Constitution  of  United  States, 
5,  14,  15,  16,  17,  18,  21,  28,  29, 
35;  the  one  particular  char 
acteristic  of  the,  19;  persist 
ence  of  the,  23;  the  rule  of 
the,  24-25. 

Conventions,  National,  14. 

Cooper,  James  Fenimore,  95. 


[101] 


Corporations.    Industrial,    49; 

the  large,  52-53. 
Cromer,  Earl  of,  quoted,  76. 
Culture,  Emerson  on,  66;  the 

basis  of,  in  America,  67-68. 
Curtis,  George  William,  95. 

Dangers,  Possible,  to  American 

civilization,  57-58. 
De  Tocqueville  on  meditation, 

73. 
Declaration  of  Independence  of 

1776,  5,  45. 

Declaration  of  Rights  of  1765, 5. 
Declaration  of  1775,  5. 
Demagogue,  The,  a  by-product 

of  democracy,  77. 
Democracy,  Pasteur  on,  5. 
Department     of     Agriculture, 

Beneficent  work  of  the,  17. 
Descartes,  74. 
Dial,  The,  92. 
Dictionaries,  The  best  modern, 

American,  94. 
Draft  Riots  of  1863,  60. 

Economic  classes,  No  fixed  and 
stable,  38. 

Economic  forces  and  the  na 
tional  life,  21-23. 

Education,  Belief  in  the  prac 
tical  results  of,  68 ;  the  higher, 
77-86. 

Educational  activity,  76-77. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  70,  71. 

Electoral  College,  The,  and  the 
Constitution,  15. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  on  cul 
ture,  66  ;  one  of  the  greatest 
Americans,  71,  95. 

Emotional  temperament  of  the 
American,  41-43. 

English  common  law,  Power  of 
the,  6. 


English  language,  Influence  of 
the,  6  ;  in  America,  94-95. 

Federal  courts,  The,  possess 
the  full  judicial  power, 
28-29. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  70,  71. 

Free-silver  movement,  The, 
42. 

Garfield,  James  Abram,  Popu 
lar  sympathy  with,  42. 

Gibbs,  Willard,  71. 

Government,  Hamilton  on 
good,  2. 

Government,  The,  as  a  unifying 
force,  17  ;  outside  forces  more 
powerful  than,  21. 

Granger  movement,  The,  42. 

Greenback  movement,  The,  42. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  viii,  2, 

58,  71,  75. 

Harvard  University,  74. 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  95. 
Hegel,  73. 
Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  95. 

Idealism  vs.  practicality,  41; 
satisfaction  in,  70. 

Independent  vote,  The,  13. 

Individual  liberty  national,  18; 
not  controlled  by  govern 
ment,  20-21. 

Intelligence  widespread,  55-57. 

Interstate  commerce,  22. 

Interstate  migration,  Effect  of, 
7-8. 

Irving,  Washington,  95. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  15,  27. 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  71. 
Judiciary,  The,  as  an  organ  of 
government,  27-29. 


[102] 


La  Farge,  72. 

Laplace,  74. 

Law,  Rule  of,  30. 

Law-abiding  spirit,  The,  60-61. 

Lawlessness  decreasing,  60 ; 
Lincoln  on,  61. 

Laws,  Reckless  making  of,  59. 

Leaders,  Public,  outside  of  the 
government,  20-21. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  on  the  defi 
nition  of  liberty,  34;  on 
lawlessness,  61 ;  as  a  leader, 
63 ;  one  of  the  greatest  Ameri 
cans,  71. 

Lincoln's  maxim,  58. 

Literature,  American,  95-96. 

Longfellow,  Henry  Wads- 
worth,  95. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  56,  95. 

McKinley,  William,  The  shoot 
ing  of,  42. 

Maine,  Unreasonable  rage  at 
destruction  of  the,  42. 

Marshall,  John,  on  the  judi 
ciary,  27;  71. 

Mayflower  compact  of  1620,  5, 
45. 

Migration,  Interstate,  7-8. 

Mob,  The,  and  the  people,  62- 
63. 

Money,  The  American  cares 
little  for,  39-40. 

Mormons,  The,  48. 

Negro  question,  The,  93. 

New  York,  54;  as  the  national 

metropolis,  88-91. 
Newman,     Cardinal,     on     the 

university,  85. 
Newspaper  press,  Influence  of 

the  better,  9-11 ;  character  of 

the  baser,  11-12. 
Newton,  74. 


Opportunities      of      American 

life,  38-39. 
Optimism  of  the  American,  61- 

62. 

Ordinance  of  1787,  5. 
Organizations,     voluntary,    of 

national  scope,  Influence  of, 

8-9. 

Pacific  slope,  The,  93. 

Parkman,  Francis,  71. 

Parliamentary  procedure, 

Knowledge  of,  9. 

Parties,  The  two  great  political, 
12-17. 

Party  name,  Attachment  to, 
12-13. 

Party  organizations  very  pow 
erful,  13-14,  16-17. 

Pasteur  on  democracy,  5. 

Paternalism  resented  by  the 
American,  36-37. 

Penn,  William,  45. 

People,  Exploitation  of  the,  a 
danger,  43. 

Philosophy  and  the  theoretical 
sciences,  73-74. 

Plato,  74. 

Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  95. 

Political  action,  Uniformity  of 
forms  of,  16-17. 

Political  waves,  Emotional, 
42-43. 

Popularity  vs.  worth,  75-76. 

Population,  The  centre  of,  87. 

Post  office,  The,  and  the  rural 
dweller,  36. 

Presidency,  The,  25-27. 

President  and  Vice-President, 
how  chosen ,  15-16. 

Principles  not  men,  A  govern 
ment  of,  29-31. 

Prohibition  movement,  The,  43. 

Prosperity,  Industrial,  22. 


[103] 


Index  "Public"    and    "governmen 

tal  "      not     interchangeable 
words,  21. 

Puritanism,  New  England,  the 
foundation  of  American  life 
and  culture,  69. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  45. 
Kamsay,  David,   on  literature 

in  America,  67,  96. 
Reflection  impossible,  73;  place 

of,  in  American  life,  75-78. 
Religious  freedom,  47-48. 
Root,  Elihu,  21. 
Russell,     Gov.     William     E., 

21. 

Saint-Gaudeus,  72. 

Scientific  activity,  72-73. 

Self-expression  the  ambition  of 
the  American,  40. 

Self-reliance  of  the  American, 
37-38. 

Senators,  United  States,  Elec 
tion  of,  16. 

South,  The,  92-93. 

Sovereignty  not  in  the  Ameri 
can  government,  19;  behind 
the  Constitution,  20. 

Stedman,  Edmund  Clarence, 
95, 


Tacitus  on  the  German  people, 

4. 
Taney,  Chief   Justice,   on   the 

English  courts,  28. 
Tariff,  The,  23. 
Tilden,  Samuel  Jones,  13. 

United  States,  The,  in  law  and 
in  fact  a  Christian  nation, 
47. 

Universities,  the  American, 
Philosophy  in,  74 ;  history  of, 
78-79,  81-83;  tasks  and  in 
fluence  of,  83-86. 

University,  Twofold  use  of  the 
name,  82-83. 

University  of  California,  74. 

University  of  Paris,  79. 

Urban  movement,  The,  86-87. 

Washington,       George,      The 

warning  of,  58-59;  70,71. 
Washington  not  a  metropolis, 

89. 

Webster,  Daniel,  71. 
West,   The,   as  representative 

of  the  United  States,  53-55 ; 

91-92. 

Whitman,  Walt,  95. 
Whitney,  William  Dwight,  71. 
Whittier,  John  Greenleaf ,  95. 


tfuNlVE 


True  and  False  Democracy 

By  NICHOLAS   MURRAY  BUTLER 

PRESIDENT  OF  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 

CONTAINING  :  True  and  False  Democracy 

The  Education  of  Public  Opinion 
Democracy  and  Education 

Cloth  i2mo  $/.0o  net 


"A  little  volume  this  of  pregnant  thought,  plain  vigorous  speech, 
and  sound  Americanism.  Among  the  topics  touched  are  :  the  need 
of  a  real  aristocracy,  definition  of  public  property,  the  socialist  propa 
ganda,  the  problem  of  wealth,  the  passing  of  class  distinctions,  the  bad 
citizen,  the  relation  of  the  individual  to  public  opinion,  the  party 
system,  the  leader  and  the  boss,  the  spread  of  democracy,  education 
and  politics,  the  good  citizen  and  the  imperfections  of  democracy.  In 
it  are  contained  some  of  the  most  valuable  principles  making  for  good 
citizenship  that  were  ever  given  to  the  public." 

—  The  Courier  Journal,  Louisville. 

"They  present  one  of  the  most  masterful  discussions  of  the  hopes 
and  fears  of  the  best  thinkers,  and  are  most  suggestive  of  the  way  to 
transfigure  fear  to  hope  by  educating  public  opinion  and  the  ennobling 
of  all  educational  activities."  —  Journal  of  Education. 

"  The  book  is  above  all  stimulating  because,  while  it  does  not  spare 
the  evils  in  present  conditions,  it  is  thoroughly  optimistic  in  tone  .  .  . 
full  of  careful  observations  and  sane  comments  of  value  to  every 
citizen."  —  New  York  Tribune. 


PUBLISHED  BY 

THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

64-66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


The  Outlook  for  the 
Average  Man 

By  ALBERT  SHAW 

EDITOR  OF  "THE  REVIEW  OF  REVIEWS" 
AUTHOR  OF  "POLITICAL  PROBLEMS  IN  AMERICAN  DEVELOPMENT," 

ETC. 

Cloth        I2mo        240 pp.        Price  $1.25  net;  by  mail,  $1.35 

"All  the  foundations  and  landmarks  are  shifting,  and  in  the  new 
economic  conditions  and  demands  the  young  man,  who  is  the  average 
man  of  Dr.  Shaw's  special  interest,  is  in  a  measure  lost  to  the  bearings. 
How  to  find  himself  and  the  great  opportunities  that  await  him  is  the 
kindly  message  which  Dr.  Shaw  proposes  to  bring  him  in  this  work, 
and  it  is  certainly  strongly  delivered.  It  carries  on  the  face  of  it  the 
true  scholar's  insight  and  outlook  and  is  full  of  encouragement  and 
good  cheer  for  all  who  can  receive  it.  There  was  never  a  finer  field, 
nobler  opportunities,  for  the  young  man  than  at  this  very  day,  but  a 
finer  training  to  meet  them  is  the  imperative  demand." 

—  Des  Moines  Capital. 

"  One  of  the  most  practical  and  useful  little  volumes  that  has  been 
issued  for  a  long  time.  ...  If  our  young  men  could  be  taught  to 
fully  understand  that,  as  Mazzini  said,  life  is  a  mission  and  duty,  there 
fore,  its  highest  law,  and  that  in  the  comprehension  of  that  mission 
and  fulfilment  of  that  duty  lie  their  means  to  success,  there  would 
certainly  be  considerably  less  moral  and  material  failures  in  the  younger 
generation  than  at  present  is  the  case.  .  .  .  We  sincerely  repeat  that 
this  little  volume  is  one  of  the  most  useful  and  most  inspiring  that  can 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  working  classes.  It  is  full  of  plain,  practical 
truths  and  is  not  in  any  sense  dogmatic."  —  Labor  World. 


PUBLISHED  BY 

THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

64-66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YOBK 


As  Others  See  Us 

A  STUDY  OF  PROGRESS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

By  JOHN  GRAHAM  BROOKS 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  SOCIAL  UNREST" 

Illustrated  Cloth  $i-75  net;  by  mail,  $1.89 

During  the  last  century  and  a  quarter  several  hundred  volumes  have 
been  written  by  foreigners  concerning  our  government,  institutions, 
politics,  education,  manners,  customs,  voice,  and  general  behavior. 
Coming  from  all  nations  of  Europe,  many  of  these  criticisms  are  amus 
ing,  some  almost  ludicrous,  while  others  furnish  valuable  material  for  a 
serious  estimate  of  what  America  is  in  the  eyes  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 

In  his  new  book,  "  As  Others  See  Us,"  the  author  attempts  to  test 
the  value  of  foreign  criticism  against  our  country,  using  this  criticism 
as  material  through  which  the  social  movement  in  the  United  States 
may  be  measured. 

From  Chastellux,  through  De  Tocqueville  and  James  Bryce,  to  the 
last  book  by  the  critic  Archer,  he  tries  to  ask  and  answer  the  question : 
How  far  have  these  critics  been  telling  the  truth  about  our  American 
character  and  institutions? 

The  placing  of  these  critics  side  by  side  promises  a  great  deal  of 
amusement,  but  it  should  also  furnish  valuable  material  for  a  serious 
estimate  of  what  America  is  in  the  eyes  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 

John  Graham  Brooks  is  widely  known  as  the  author  of  "  The  Social 
Unrest,"  one  of  the  most  thought-provoking  discussions  of  modern 
social  conditions,  of  which  Mr.  Bliss  Perry,  the  editor  of  The  Atlantic 
Monthly,  said :  "  A  fascinating  book  —  to  me  the  clearest,  sanest,  most 
helpful  discussion  of  economic  and  human  problems  I  have  read  for 
years." 

PUBLISHED  BY 

THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

64-66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


Races  and  Immigrants  in  America 

By  JOHN  R.   COMMONS 

UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN 
Cloth  I2mo  242  pages '  $1.50  net 

"  The  colonial  race  elements  are  considered,  brief  chapters  are  given  to 
the  negro  and  recent  immigrants,  and  industry,  labor,  city  life,  crime,  poverty, 
and  politics  are  treated  in  their  relation  to  the  maintenance  or  destruction  of 
democracy.  Professor  Commons'  purpose  appears  to  be  to  summarize  the 
latest  available  data  upon  his  subject  and  leave  conclusions  largely  to  the 
reader.  In  line  with  this  purpose  is  a  valuable  list  of  authorities  consulted. 
It  is  certain  that  the  book  will  be  of  great  service  to  ministers,  sociologists, 
and  all  who  are  concerned  in  the  problems  of  the  day."  —  Chicago  Interior. 

"  The  work  is  scientific  as  to  method  and  popular  in  style,  and  forms  a 
very  useful  handbook  about  the  American  population."  —  Dial. 

"  Well  fortified  throughout  by  statistics,  and  evidencing  a  wide  range  of 
observation,  the  great  merit  of  the  volume  is  its  sensibleness."  —  Nation. 

"  While  not  profound,  it  is  a  brief  and  concise  treatment  of  serious  pub 
lic  problems,  and  is  characterized  by  the  good  judgment  and  general  sanity 
which  are  evident  in  Professor  Commons'  works  in  general.  The  general 
point  of  view  and  conclusions  of  the  book  are  undoubtedly  sound,  and  it 
will  serve  a  useful  purpose  in  introducing  to  many  the  serious  study  of  our 
racial  and  immigration  problems.  To  one  who  can  spend  but  a  brief  time 
in  reading  along  the  line  of  these  problems,  but  who  wishes  a  general  survey 
of  them  all,  there  is  no  book  that  can  be  more  heartily  commended."  — 
CHARLES  A.  ELLWOOD  in  The  American  Journal  of  Sociology. 

"  This  is  an  extremely  valuable  study  of  the  greatest  problem  which  the 
United  States  has  to  solve  to-day;  perhaps  greater  than  that  of  all  the  ages 
that  have  preceded  it,  namely,  the  assimilation  of  large  numbers  of  dissimilar 
races  into  a  composite  race.  .  .  .  To-day  in  the  city  of  New  York  sixty-six 
different  tongues  are  spoken.  A  century  hence  there  will  probably  be  only 
one.  And  throughout  the  country  there  are  communities  in  which  the  Eng 
lish  is  not  the  dominant  language.  But  the  railroad,  the  post-office,  and  the 
telegraph  as  they  bind  them  in  interest  will  bind  them  in  speech.  It  is  in  this 
view  that  the  book  is  of  inestimable  value."  —  American  Historical  Magazine. 

"  Professor  Commons  has  long  been  a  diligent  and  penetrating  student 
of  industrial  conditions  in  this  country,  and  particularly  of  the  labor  move 
ment.  His  investigations  in  this  latter  field  have  brought  him  face  to  face 
with  the  situation  that  confronts  the  arriving  immigrant,  and  he  has  been 
led  to  inquire  into  the  varying  abilities  of  different  races  to  make  use  of  the 
opportunities  presented  in  this  land  for  their  advancement.  .  .  .  We  do 
not  recall  another  book  of  its  size  that  presents  so  much  important  and 
essential  information  on  this  vital  topic."  —  Review  of  Re-views. 


PUBLISHED    BY 

THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

64-66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YOKE 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


